No use of children and young people as soldiers!
February 12th is #RedHandDay. This means that children, teenagers, and adults from all over the world are protesting against the use of children and young people under 18 as soldiers. Join in and show your red hand! Why is this so important? There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers worldwide. They need support 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.
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 child soldiers survive, are freed, or manage to escape. Former child soldiers need safety and security. They must be helped to process their experiences. Schooling and vocational training enable them to start a new life. Prevention is also crucial, for example, through education, local support networks, and rapid assistance in cases of threatened recruitment. Here you can find more information about how Terre des Hommes and its partners help child soldiers and children in wars and armed conflicts
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 participate in the Red Hand Day campaign with your class, collect red handprints on February 12th, and make the campaign's demands visible. You can find out how to participate and what's needed in the campaign brochure " Show your red hand – Making a statement together ".
Demands of the Red Hand Campaign
Children under 18 must not be recruited, either voluntarily or forcibly, or used as soldiers. This applies regardless of their role or whether they carry a weapon. All girls and boys under 18 must be released from armies and armed groups. Furthermore, it is absolutely forbidden to recruit anyone under 18 into armies or armed groups. Terre des Hommes and our partner organizations are working to achieve this in many countries worldwide, including Colombia, Mozambique, South Sudan, India, Iraq, the Philippines, and Myanmar. You can find more information on our child soldier topic page .
And this also applies to the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr). Germany is one of the few countries worldwide that still recruits underage soldiers into its army. Since 2011, the Bundeswehr has recruited more than 22,000 underage boys and girls as soldiers. In 2024 alone, the number reached 2,203, a new record high, and the trend is rising; this figure includes 321 girls. Every year, these underage soldiers in the Bundeswehr, who undergo the same rigorous military training as adult soldiers, suffer serious violations of children's rights, including sexual violence, accidents, psychological problems, and trauma. With our " Under 18 Never " campaign, we are advocating for an immediate end to the recruitment of minors as Bundeswehr soldiers and an end to Bundeswehr recruitment advertising aimed at minors. More information can be found on our Bundeswehr topic page .
When minors flee forced recruitment, they need protection and asylum. However, this happens far too rarely. Only a few reach Germany and Europe, and their journey is perilous. Once here, many face deportation. In recent years, for example, only 60 percent of unaccompanied minor refugees (UMRs) from Somalia have received protection status – even though masses of minors in Somalia are being forcibly recruited by Islamists and other groups. We demand that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees change its decision-making practices and grant protection to minors from countries where recruitment is a threat.
Weapons from German arms exports repeatedly end up in the hands of children. Many children die as a result, for example, during bombings in the wars in the Middle East. Furthermore, German weapons are still being supplied to countries that use them to commit serious human rights and children's rights violations – for example, Brazil, Colombia, India, Pakistan, Israel, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
In order to protect children and young people in wars and armed conflicts and to fulfill the legal obligations of the Arms Trade Treaty, the EU Common Position and other international treaties such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Germany must
- to comply with the existing prohibition in international and EU law on arms exports to countries with serious human rights violations or armed conflicts
- also comply with the other applicable, legally binding criteria for export licenses under international and EU law and additionally enshrine them in national laws.
- Introduce the right of associations to bring legal action, so that government arms export decisions can be reviewed in court for their legality.
- Introduce civil liability rules
You can find more information on our small arms topic page and on the website of the Action Outcry - Stop the arms trade! supported 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.