For many people, the primary image of a child soldier, is of a small African boy, in ragged clothes, wild-eyed and carrying an AK-47. Such images have proven powerful in shaping action against children’s military recruitment. But they do not tell the full story. There has been significant debate over who and what should be classified as a ‘ child soldier’, in law and across conflicts, militaries and individual perspectives. David M. Rosen traces the evolution of international humanitarian law in child soldiering, arguing that a new “transnational politics of age” shaped the concept of childhood and therefore that of child soldiering.[1]
When the military use and recruitment of children was first proscribed in international humanitarian law as part of the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention in 1977 state parties and armed groups were required to ensure that: “children who have not attained the age of fifteen years do not take a direct part in hostilities and, in particular, they shall refrain from recruiting them into their armed forces”.[2]
Behind the scenes, during diplomatic negotiations on the protocols, opinions had sharply varied over who should be designated a child for the purposes of this protocol. Delegates noted that the ages of majority ranged from 12 to 21 in different countries. Brazilian delegates proclaimed that a minimum age of recruitment of eighteen was necessary ‘as a general condemnation of the policy of using minors for military purposes’, whilst Britain joined Greece, Canada, Japan and North Vietnam in arguing that 15 to 18 year olds ‘have the mental and physical capacity to fight, and will wish to serve their country in time of need’.[3]
Humanitarian dissatisfaction with the minimum age of fifteen and a focus only on children’s direct participation in hostilities led to a protracted campaign to extend the definition of ‘child soldiering’, with many organisations taking a ‘Straight 18 position’ and arguing that 18 should be the minimum age for military recruitment and use.[4] The campaign failed to secure a change during the negotiations on the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child which maintain the minimum age of fifteen years for recruitment into armed forces.[5] The 1998 International Criminal Court similarly declared “conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years” into armed forces or groups as a war crime.[6] However, as the campaign gathered momentum the International Labour Office’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention of 1999 Art 3(a) listed “forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict” as a worst form of child labour, taking eighteen as the definition of a ‘child’.[7] Reflecting the centrality of Africa in actions to combat child soldiering, the 2000 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child art 22(2) became the first and only regional rights charter to prohibit the state recruitment and direct participation of any child in armed conflict, also defining a child as ‘below the age of 18 years’.[8]
In 2000 the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict was signed, establishing that “persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into [state parties] armed forces” or armed groups, and that those states that permit voluntary recruitment under that age were to ensure “such recruitment is genuinely voluntary’, with full knowledge of the duties and consent of family or guardians.[9]
With growing acceptance of the ‘Straight 18’ position, attention turned from definitions of ‘child’ to ‘soldier’. Advocates strove to expand understandings of child soldiering beyond simply children bearing arms, to reflect the reality that children served in multiple military roles, both direct and auxiliary. In 2007 the Paris Principles extended the definition of a ‘child soldier’ in terms of role to include “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”.[10]
These instruments highlight the evolution of the category of ‘the child soldier’ in international humanitarian law, which was both shaped by – and shaped in – turn transnational advocacy, popular cultural and local understandings of childhood and war. The label of ‘child soldier’ however remains contested, bearing different meanings and different contexts, as is explored here.
[1] David M. Rosen, “Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, and the Globalization of Childhood.” American Anthropologist 109, no. 2 (2007), 296-306. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2007.109.2.296.
[2] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), Geneva, 8 June 1977, Article 77(2). See also Protocol II, Article 4(3)(c).
[3] ICRC, Official Records of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, Geneva, Volume XV, CDDH/III/SR.45, (ICRC: Geneva, 1977), 64-75.
[4] See Rosen (2007); Stacey Hynd, “Constructing the Child Soldier Crisis: Violence, Victimhood, and the Development of Transnational Advocacy against the Recruitment and Use of Children in Conflict, circa 1970–2000.” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 12, no. 3 (2021): 265-285. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hum.2021.0017.
[5] Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN General Assembly, Res. 44/25, 20 November 1989, Article 38(3).
[6] Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted by the UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, Rome, 17 July 1998, UN Doc. A/CONF.183/9, Article 8(2)(b)(xxvi) and (e)(vii).
[7] Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, ILO Convention No. 182, adopted by the ILO General Conference, Geneva, 17 June 1999, Articles 1 and 3(a).
[8] African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, adopted by the Sixteenth Ordinary Session of the OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, Res. 197 (XVI), Monrovia, 17–20 July 1990, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990), Article 22(2).
[9] Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, adopted by the UN General Assembly, Res. 54/263, 25 May 2000, Annex I, Articles 2–4, 6(3) and 7
[10] UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The Paris Principles. Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated With Armed Forces or Armed Groups, February 2007. https://www.refworld.org/reference/research/unicef/2007/en/42827.