Recruitment of child soldiers is on the rise, despite global commitments

This article is published in association with United Nations.

2024 marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of a UN commitment to protect children from being recruited as soldiers. However, armed groups have increased the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was hailed as a historic agreement when it was adopted by world leaders in 1989, and it has inspired governments to pass laws protecting children from violence and exploitation. Around a decade later, a protocol prohibiting the recruitment and use as soldiers of all children under 18 years of age was adopted. To date, it has been ratified by 173 countries.

Instead of ending the practice, armed groups have increased recruitment and use of children for armed conflict purposes, from Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the Lake Chad basin, Mozambique, the Sahel, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Haiti.

Most of the impacted children were abducted and forcibly recruited. Most of these children are girls who have suffered rape and sexual violence, and have been bought, sold and trafficked.

On Tuesday, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, declared that the increase in the use of military force by governments and regimes has wreaked havoc on children, in situations such as Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza; Sudan; Lebanon; Myanmar and Ukraine.

“The cries of these children echo across conflict zones, but far too often, the world remains silent,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba.

“Their pain is a stain on our collective conscience. We must do better—because every moment we delay, another child becomes just another number in the long list of conflict related casualties and violations in the children and armed conflict reports.”

Ms. Gamba called for the granting of safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to children, the implementation of international laws, the elimination of wide impact explosives in populated areas, the prohibition of the military use of schools, and the prohibition and elimination of anti-personnel landmines.

“As we move into 2025, let us choose compassion over indifference and peace over war’” added the senior UN official. “Together, we can rewrite the stories of these children—not with fear and loss, but with healing and hope”.