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| © UNICEF/HQ01-0093/Mann |
| Former child soldiers in Sudan walk away from the weapons they once carried. |
In some countries the law considers you old enough to die for your country before you're old enough to vote. In others, you could be forced to become a child soldier in spite of laws forbidding the practice.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child says that no one under the age of 15 should have to fight in a war. An optional protocol, or formal addition, to the Convention pushes that age up to 18. Voluntary recruitment of under-18s is not forbidden by this protocol, but under-18 recruits must have the consent of their parents or guardians and should not be involved in combat. So far, this protocol has been signed by 111 countries and ratified – given legal force – by 54 of those countries.
Quite a few countries allow voluntary recruitment in the armed forces from the age of 16 or even 15, and voluntary recruitment at 17 is common. A few countries, including Israel and Cuba, have conscription – compulsory recruitment – from the age of 17. But in countries that have conscription, 18 is by far the most common age.
Shockingly, however, in many parts of the world, much younger children continue to be forced into both state armies and other armed groups when conflicts break out - to kill and be killed.
