They are forced to kill and loot, they have to go to the front, are driven by mine fields or used for espionage. 250,000 children and adolescents are abused as a soldier worldwide. If the war is over, many are traumatized and urgently need support. Start with us to ensure that this serious child rights violation will be stopped and these girls and boys get a chance to return to civil society.
Your donation helps!
Projects
Child soldiers - data and facts
No recruitment of children!
They are forced to kill and loot, they have to go to the front, are driven by mine fields or used for espionage. 250,000 children and adolescents are abused as soldiers worldwide - both by regular armies and rebel groups. Depending on the conflict, there are also five to 20 percent girls. That is often forgotten.
Children are an integral part of the military infrastructure in many armed warring parties. Your everyday life is characterized by violence, her upbringing is based on unconditional obedience. Children are easier manipulable, more obedient and fearless than adults. Light and cheap small weapons - also from Europe - enable the warlords to also send young children to the front.
If the war is over, they urgently need support so that they have a chance to return to civil society. Many are traumatized and cannot make a living. You have often not received an apprenticeship or attended a school. Terre des Hommes gives these children a new perspective: in projects they receive psychological care and training. At the political level, Terre des Hommes is committed to ensuring that no child under the age of 18 is recruited and that weapon exports are stopped to countries with serious human rights violations.
Worldwide use against the recruitment of children
In Germany, Terre des Hommes coordinates the "German Alliance Children's Soldiers" together with the Kindergilfe. Worldwide, Terre des Hommes in networks such as the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict and with partners such as the Coalico in Colombia or "Child Soldiers International" are committed to the abuse of children as soldiers.
definition
Children's soldiers are
»... all persons under the age of 18 who are recruited or used by armed forces or armed groups (…), including children who were used as fighter, chefs, sponsors, news transfers, spies or for sexual purposes.«
Definition according to the Parisian Principles (2007), signed by 105 states, including Germany
Where are there child soldiers?
According to estimates, around 250,000 children in over 20 countries are recruited and used in over 20 countries by armed groups and armies. They are kidnapped or lured with false promises and a small wage and drilled military. They are often made compliant by ill -treatment, drugs or money. Girls and boys are often sexually abused. The long -term consequences for the psychological and physical well -being of the children are catastrophic: they are forced to absolute obedience, the self -confidence disappears, they dump off cruelty, are traumatized and seriously injured.
In Germany , boys and girls are recruited for the Bundeswehr every year, in 2022 there were a total of 1,773, including 327 girls - an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year. Terre des Hommes is committed to ensuring that the Bundeswehr also maintains the international 18-year standard and stops recruiting and advertising for minors-this is also demanding the UN Committee for the rights of the child and the children's commission of the German Bundestag. In September 2017, Terre des Hommes presented more than 30,000 signatures to Defense Minister of the Leyen and granted the claims in a conversation in the Ministry of Defense.
250,000 children and adolescents are used in more than 20 countries worldwide as soldiers, most of them in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
- In Syria, thousands of children are misused as soldiers, by the Islamic State, by the Free Syrian Army as well as Kurdish and in the past of Pro Assad groups.
- In Colombia, 7,000 Farc fighters were disarmed and demobilized in Colombia as a result of the peace treaty signed at the end of 2016, including many minors. In other armed guerrilla groups such as the ELL, ELP, FARC splinter groups and in paramilitary groups and criminal gangs, there are still minor soldiers.
- More than 8,000 children, including many girls, have been recruited by Boko Haram in Nigeria since 2009 and partially forced to blow themselves up as suicide bombers. Hundreds of children also recruited against Boko Haram.
- In Myanmar there are also thousands or possibly tens of thousands of child soldiers, precise numbers are not known. The cases of recruits to the state army initially declined after the signing of a UN campaign plan in 2012, but increased massively again from 2020. Armed opposition groups such as the Kachin Independent Army Kia also use minors as soldiers to a large extent.
- In India, numerous armed opposition groups are recruiting children, for example the Naxalites and many groups in the northeast India, and the state army is also repeatedly documented by cases of recruiting and illegal detention from minors. Terre des Hommes created a study.
- Also in the DR Congo, Cameroon, Sudan, Südsudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Somalia, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Israel / Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Philippines and other countries are recruited and exploited as soldiers.
In addition to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children and the additional protocol of children in armed conflicts, important standards have been enforced against the recruitment of children in recent years. These include:
- The establishment of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which, among other things, pursues the recruitment of children as a war crime
- The name of a special representative of the UN for children in armed conflicts and the establishment of a monitoring and reporting procedure
- A discussion of the situation of the children in decisions by the UN Security Council, in peace missions and peace agreements.
But this is far from being enough, because many regulations are not implemented in practice. Even the most serious children's rights violations usually have no consequences, neither criminal nor at an international or diplomatic level.
This culminated in June 2016 that Saudi Arabia threatened the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon that all payments would be posted to the UN if it would not be deleted from the so-called list of the UN shame. Saudi Arabia was listed there after massive bombing of hospitals and schools in Yemen with many civilian fatalities, including many children. Ban Ki Moon agreed with teeth, but made this extortion publicly. Terre des Hommes and many other NGOs protested, but international pressure was largely out. From 2017 to 2019, the military coalition cited by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (VAE), which wages war in Yemen, was then listed in the list of shame as an actor who is responsible for killing and mutilation for children. In the 2020 and 2021, however, although the military coalition continues to bomb civil markets, schools and hospitals, with many fatalities. In 2019, several human rights organizations made criminal charges at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for aid for aid for war crimes against European companies such as Airbus, Rheinmetall, Leonardo and Bae Systems and against state actors in Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain and Italy. Members of the military coalition, especially Saudi Arabia, united Arabian Emirates and Egypt, continue to be among the largest arms importers in the world and are mainly upgraded by the United States, Great Britain and Germany. The Federal Government has suspended arms exports to Saudi Arabia since the end of 2018 because of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but has partly approved deliveries about other European countries.
In general, there has been a very high degree of child rights violations in armed conflicts in recent years. The UN Security Council and influential countries such as Germany urgently need to become active and give the protection of children in war areas.
Demands and goals
Terre des Hommes and German Alliance Children's soldiers make demands on international politics and the federal government to improve the situation of child soldiers.
1. "Straight 18"
Children under the age of 18 may neither be recruited or forcibly recruited or used as soldiers. This applies regardless of the function and whether you wear a weapon. All girls and boys under the age of 18 have to be released from armies and armed groups. In principle, under 18-year-olds must not be advertised for armies or armed groups. This also applies to the Bundeswehr, who has recruited and advertises 17-year-olds.
2. Punishment of the responsible
persons, states and armed groups who recruit children and use them as soldiers must be publicly named and punished.
3. Care, protection and help for fled child soldiers
Medical and psychological care, protection against renewed recruitment, as well as school and vocational training are vital for all former child soldiers - especially if they come to other countries as refugees.
4. Granting of political asylum
former child soldiers must be granted in all countries to which they have fled, protection and political asylum must be granted - also in Germany and other industrialized countries.
5. Stop the arms exports to countries with armed conflicts or serious violations of human and child and child rights- especially to those countries in which one of the six serious child rights violations take place in armed conflicts (according to UN definition: the recruitment of children as soldiers, killing and mutilating children, the kidnapping of children, sexual violence against children, attacks in schools and sick houses, Refusal of access to humanitarian aid).
6. More money for child soldiers aid programs
The state and international funds for prevention and reintegration programs for child soldiers have to be increased significantly. There are no means of such programs in many countries with child soldiers.
Never 18! This should also apply to the Bundeswehr
1. Stop of the recruitment of 17-year-old minors to the Bundeswehr, increasing the minimum age for recruitment to 18 years.
2. Stop of the Bundeswehr advertising, which is aimed specifically at minors: at schools, in youth media, on youth sites on the Internet, at sports, adventure and music events for minors, etc.
3. Peace education binding in the curricula and anchoring in teacher training
4. Granting of political asylum and support for refugee child soldiers or minors who have fled before recruitment. A safe residence status, medical and psychological care as well as school and vocational training are vital for them. There are major problems here in Germany.
5. Stop the arms exports to countries with armed conflicts or serious violations of human and child and child rights- especially to those countries in which one of the six serious child rights violations take place in armed conflicts (according to UN definition: the recruitment of children as soldiers, killing and mutilating children, the kidnapping of children, sexual violence against children, attacks in schools and sick houses, Refusal of access to humanitarian aid).
6. More money for child soldiers aid programs : The state funds for prevention and reintegration programs for child soldiers in crisis regions must be increased significantly.
What you can do
Terre des Hommes is committed to protecting children in armed conflicts at various levels. In addition to working in initiatives against recruiting children, Terre des Hommes supports numerous projects in war and crisis areas. The following aspects are important in the project work by Terre des Hommes:
- Prevention work, i.e. the protection of children from violence and forced recruitment
- Efforts for discharge, rehabilitation and reconciliation for active or former child soldiers
- Help and support for injured and traumatized former child soldiers
- Help for former child soldiers who come to Germany as refugees
Please support our work against the abuse of children as soldiers with a donation. Every donation helps!
Your contact person
Ralf Willinger
Speaker children's rights and peace culture