News:

Now available to download is a summary of the Chatham House event held on 31 May 2012, 'Better than Cure: Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Children in National and Proxy Armed Forces'.

Despite near-universal condemnation of the use of children in armed forces, and widespread ratification of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and its 2002 Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, children continue to be used in government and proxy armed forces around the world.

Participants examined international cases of child recruitment in Chad, Sri Lanka, Burma and Libya. Established preventive mechanisms and existing international, institutional and governmental approaches to child recruitment provided the basis for discussion on a future preventive agenda and the path towards its promotion. As part of wider discussion on prevention mechanisms and best practice, Isabelle Guitard presented and discussed the findings of Child Soldiers International’s report Better than Cure: Preventing the recruitment and use of children in the Chadian national army.

Please use the link below to read the summary.