Child Soldiers

Militaries, both state armies and insurgent groups, may recruit boys and girls, often through force or other coercion, as child soldiers. Though this practice has a long historical precedent, the international community has widely condemned the practice in the twenty-first century. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Child in Armed Conflict (OPAC), commonly referred to as the child soldier treaty, in 2000 to supplement the original convention, which had entered into force ten years earlier. The protocol requires states to prevent the recruitment of and prohibit the conscription, or compulsory service, of soldiers younger than eighteen.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of State...