Child soldier facts for kids

A child soldier in the Iraq-Iran war

A child soldier is a child that takes part to actively fight in a war. There is no official definition. The Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers says that no one less than 18 years old should be recruited by regular or auxiliary troops. The age limit of 18 years is taken from the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF, terre des hommes and Amnesty International see all the combatants and their helpers that are below 18 years of age as child soldiers.

There is a problem, however. If such children were classified as Combatants, this would permit to fight against children in wars. On the other hand, if such children were captured, they would then have to be treated according to the Geneva Conventions as prisoners of war.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court says that recruiting people below the age of 15 is a war crime, and must be prosecuted. Thomas Lubanga is currently being tried for this crime at the court in Den Haag.

According to an UN source, 300.000 children were actively participating in armed conflicts, in 1996.

Images for kids

A Chinese Nationalist soldier, age 10, member of a Chinese division from the X Force, boarding planes in Burma bound for China, May 1944.
"Child Soldier in the Ivory Coast", Gilbert G. Groud, 2007.
Children of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia.
Child soldier military escort of the PAIGC with an AK-47 rifle during a trip from Candjambary to Sara, Guinea-Bissau, 1974.
A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
A child soldier of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (2007).
Photos of young Khmer Rouge fighters
An Iranian child soldier after the Liberation of Khorramshahr
The brave Righetto (1851). Replica of the Giovanni Strazza statue in the lobby of the grand staircase in Palazzo Litta. It portrays a 12 year old child who died with his dog in 1849 while trying to stop a bomb during the defense of the Repubblica Romana in 1849.
Rebel Salvadoran soldier boy combatant in Perquin, El Salvador 1990, during the Salvadoran Civil War.
2008 poster by Rafaela Tasca and Carlos Latuff
Mexico honors its cadets who died in the battle of Chapultepec (1847).
A powder monkey on a Union vessel, American Civil War.
Drummer boy John Clem during the American Civil War.
Momčilo Gavrić and another soldier reporting to major Stevan Tucović, 1916.
Statue of Mały Powstaniec (The Little Insurgent) in Warsaw commemorates all child soldiers of World War II and earlier conflicts. Honour guard of Polish Boy Scouts.
Polish Szare Szeregi fighters during the Warsaw Uprising, 1944.
Child soldier in the Soviet Union, 1944. "Sons of the regiment" were orphans adopted by Soviet regiments. They lived with the soldiers and some performed reconnaissance.