Children and human rights
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Across the world children are denied their human rights, including for example, their right to education. They are recruited into armed forces. They are subjected to the death penalty, are disappeared, are punished by cruel and inhumane methods and suffer many other forms of violence.
Child soldiers
Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of children under 18 have been affected by armed conflict.
They are recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a variety of other armed groups. Often they are abducted at school, on the streets or at home. Others enlist ‘voluntarily’, usually because they see few alternatives. Yet international law prohibits the participation in armed conflict of children aged under 18.
It means that in reality girls and boys illegally and under force, participate in combat where frequently they are injured or killed. Others are used as spies, messengers, porters, servants or to lay or clear landmines. Girls are at particular risk of ...
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