Thirty-five years after a United Nations (UN) commitment – by way of a convention – to protect children from being recruited as soldiers, the practice continues with Africa at the forefront.
The UN Convention on the rights of the child was hailed as an historic agreement when adopted by world leaders in late 1989 and it saw government pass laws protecting children from violence and exploitation. A decade later a protocol prohibiting recruitment and use as soldiers of all children under 18 was adopted. To date the convention and protocol has been ratified by 173 countries.
Instead of ending the practice, armed groups have increased recruitment and use of children for armed conflict purposes, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict said in a statement. It stretches from Colombia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the Lake Chad basin, Mozambique, the Sahel, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Haiti.
Most impacted children were abducted and forcibly recruited, the statement has Special Representative Virginia Gamba saying, adding an increase in the use of military force by governments and regimes wreaks havoc on children. In this regard she pointed to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza as well as Sudan, Lebanon, Myanmar and Ukraine.
“The cries of these children echo across conflict zones, but far too often, the world remains silent,” Gamba is quoted as saying in the statement.
“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 children and armed conflict reports.”
She called for safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to children, implementation of international laws, elimination of wide impact explosives in populated areas, prohibition of military use of schools and elimination of anti-personnel landmines.
Moving into 2025 Gamba appealed for compassion to be chosen over indifference and peace over war. “Together we can rewrite the stories of these children—not with fear and loss, but with healing and hope,” the statement has her saying.
