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Definition | Recommended Reading | Recommended Viewing

What is a child soldier?

• As defined by the Paris Principles (2007), a child soldier is: any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys, and girls used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities.

• The United Nations’ Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child forbids forced recruitment of children less than 18 years into armed groups. Implemented in 2000, more than 110 countries have since ratified the Protocol.

• While exact figures are unknown, the United Nations (UN) estimates that there are currently 250,000 child soldiers worldwide.

• 40% of all child soldiers are girls. In addition to fighting, girls are most often used as sexual slaves by commanders and domestic labourers (e.g. cooks, nurses, porters).

• Child soldiers are and have been used in almost all regions of the world: Africa (Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone), Asia (Burma, Sri Lanka), Latin America (Colombia, Mexico), Europe (Russian Federation, Former Yugoslavia), and the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq).

• Children may be abducted, forcibly recruited, or given the very limited alternatives, “volunteer" to become child soldiers. Contributing factors to joining armed groups include: poverty, separation from family, displacement, and living in areas exposed to armed conflict or severely restricted social and economic opportunities (e.g. schools, employment).

• Improvements in weapon technology as well as the proliferation of small arms and light weapons have made it easier for children to engage in combat. Such weapons are often accessible in conflict zones and are relatively easy to use.

• Children abducted by armed groups may be forced to commit violent acts against their own family members and community. This deliberate ‘stigmatizing’ strategy makes reunification processes for former child soldiers very challenging.

• Follow the link to download the ‘Zero Force: Child Soldiers Facts & Resources’.

• For more information visit the Child Soldiers Initiative at childsoldiersintiative.org.

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• Recommended Reading
  
  

• They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children
  Romeo A. Dallaire

  Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
  Romeo A. Dallaire

  A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
  Ishmael Beah

  Aboke Girls. Children Abducted in Northern Uganda
  Els De Temmerman
  

  Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers – Women’s lives through war and peace in Sierra Leone
  Chris Coulter

  Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection
  Mike Wessells

  Children at War
  P.W. Singer

  Children and Youth on the Front Line: Ethnography, Armed Conflict and Displacement (Studies in Forced Migration)
  Jo Boyden (Editor) and Joanna De Berry (Editor)

  Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children
  Faith McDonnell and Grace Akallo

  The Impact of war on Children
  Graça Machel

  Johnny Mad Dog
  Emmanuel Dongala

  Stolen Angels: the kidnapped girls of Uganda
  Kathy Cook

  War Child, A child soldier’s story
  Emmanuel Jal

  When Elephants Fight: The Lives of Children in Conflict
  Eric Walters and Adrian Bradbury
  

  Recommended Viewing

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  Blood Diamond (2006)
  Drama – Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone
  
  The Children’s War (2009)
  Documentary – Former Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda
  
  Ezra (2007)
  Drama – Focuses on a former Child Soldier in Sierra Leone
  
  Invisible Children (2006)
  Documentary – Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda
  
  Johnny Mad Dog (2008)
  Drama – Child soldiers (mostly acted by former Child Soldiers) in an unnamed country in Africa
  
  Innocent Voices (2004)
  Drama – A child attempts to avoid recruitment for armed conflict in El Salvador
  
  Soldier Child (1998)
  Documentary – Child Soldiers in Northern Uganda