Government Armed Forces

Despite near-universal condemnation, hundreds of thousands of children have fought and died in almost every major conflict in the world, many in government armed forces. According to the Child Soldiers Global Report 2008, governments which used child soldiers in armed conflict between 2004 and 2007 were Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Israel, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan & Southern Sudan, Uganda and the Yemen.

Some governments which do not directly recruit children nevertheless back paramilitary groups, militias and local defence groups which use children to fight and to kill, to commit human rights abuses against civilians, or to loot and destroy property. Those using these unofficial forces include Chad, Colombia, DRC, Iran, Sri Lanka and Uganda. Governments continue to deploy children to gather intelligence or to act as messengers or scouts, directly exposing them to the hazards of war or to violent reprisals if identified by opposing forces. Governments have ruthlessly targeted children suspected of membership of armed political groups. Such children have been detained and reportedly tortured often to extract information, such as in Israel. Some have been sentenced to death in unfair trials, including in military courts, such as in the DRC. Others have been killed during military "clean up" operations in Burundi, Indonesia and Nepal, or "disappeared", such as in Chechnya in the Russian Federation.

As of 2007, as many as 26 countries continued to recruit 16- and 17-year-olds into their peacetime armies. They included Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Cuba, DRC, Myanmar, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Child Soldiers International is opposed to the military recruitment or use of any girl or boy under the age of 18. A large number of states have pledged to abide by a range of international human rights treaties, but much remains to be done for their full and effective implementation. (See international standards page.)

In March 2004 Child Soldiers International made a submission to the UN study on Violence against Children, with specific reference to children in military schools and to children in peacetime government forces.