No use of children and young people as soldiers!
February 12th is #RedHandDay. This means that children, young people, and adults from all over the world are protesting against the use of children and young people under the age of 18 as soldiers. Help and show your red hand! Why is this so important? There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers worldwide. They need aid programs, protection, and asylum. Arms exports to crisis regions like the Middle East, where children and young people are exploited as soldiers, must be stopped. It is also important to put pressure on the federal government to implement the promises made in the coalition agreement. The traffic light coalition has announced both an arms export control law and an end to the recruitment of underage soldiers by the Bundeswehr. Words must now be followed by actions.
background
Around 250,000 girls and boys under the age of 18 serve as child soldiers in armies, rebel groups, and militias worldwide. Warring parties will use any means necessary to recruit them: children are kidnapped, threatened, lured with false promises, and their plight is exploited. Once in the ranks of armed groups or armies, they are ruthlessly deployed as couriers, spies, in mine clearance, and in direct combat. Brutal violence and sexual abuse are commonplace. Drugs are used to make them more compliant, and disobedience and lack of loyalty are severely punished.
Only a few are freed or manage to escape. Former child soldiers need safety and security. They must be helped to process their experiences. School and training opportunities enable them to start a new life. But prevention is also important, for example, through education, local protection networks, and rapid assistance in cases of threatened recruitment.
Red Hand Day for Schools
Do you want to take a stand against the abuse of children and young people as soldiers at your school? Then join Ohrer Klassen in the Red Hand Day campaign, collect red handprints on February 12th, and make the campaign's demands visible. You can find out how you can participate and what you need in the campaign brochure "Show your red hand – Make a stand together."
Demands of the Red Hand Campaign
Children under the age of 18 may not be recruited, either voluntarily or forcibly, or deployed as soldiers. This applies regardless of their role and whether they carry a weapon. All girls and boys under the age of 18 must be discharged from armies and armed groups. In principle, under-18s may not be recruited for armies or armed groups. This also applies to the Bundeswehr.
Since 2011, the Bundeswehr has recruited more than 17,000 underage boys and girls. In 2022 alone, the number was 1,773, and the trend is rising. The "traffic light coalition" coalition agreement aims to end this practice.
"Training and military service remain reserved for adult soldiers." (Traffic light coalition agreement, 2021, p. 149)
However, this wording leaves questions unanswered. To ensure the plan's implementation without loopholes, the recruitment age in the Soldiers Act and the Conscription Act must be raised to 18. We are advocating for this with the "Never Under 18" campaign. You can find more information on the campaign page and on our special page.
When minors flee forced recruitment, they need protection and asylum. However, this is far too rare. Few reach Germany and Europe; their journey is dangerous. Once here, many face deportation. In 2020, for example, only 60 percent of unaccompanied minor refugees (UMF) from Somalia received protection status – even though minors are demonstrably being forcibly recruited by Islamists in Somalia. We call on the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to change its decision-making practices and grant protection to minors from countries where recruitment is threatened.
Weapons from German arms exports repeatedly end up in the hands of children. Many children die as a result of them, for example, in bombings during the Yemen war. German weapons are also still being delivered to countries that commit serious human rights and children's rights violations – for example, Brazil, Colombia, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The latter three are waging a war in Yemen with serious human rights violations. This could soon end if we apply enough pressure. The new German government stated in its coalition agreement:
"For a restrictive arms export policy, we need more binding rules and therefore want to coordinate a corresponding EU arms export regulation with our European partners. We are committed to a national arms export control law." (Traffic Light Coalition Agreement, 2021, p. 146)
However, not every agreement in coalition agreements will be implemented, and the decisive factor will be whether strict guidelines are in place. These include, in particular:
- Prohibition of arms exports to countries with serious human rights violations or involvement in armed conflicts
- legally binding and strict criteria for export licenses
- right to collective action
- civil liability rules
terre des hommes and other organizations have drafted a position paper on the current negotiations on an EU arms export regulation. The statement reads:
You can find more information at www.tdh.de/kleinwaffen and on the website of the campaign "Aktion Aufschrei - Stoppt den Waffenhandel!" (Outcry Action - Stop the Arms Trade!), which is supported by Terre des Hommes .
If child soldiers manage to escape, they often face punishment instead of reintegration and rehabilitation. This must change! National and international funding for prevention and reintegration programs for child soldiers must be significantly increased. In many countries with child soldiers, there is no funding at all for such programs.