The Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict reports that there are many ways for children to become associated with armed forces and groups. Some children are abducted and beaten into submission, others join military groups to escape poverty, to defend their communities, out of a feeling of revenge or for other reasons.

In many conflicts children take direct part in combat. However, their role is not limited to fighting. Many girls and boys are also used in support functions that also entail great risk and hardship. Their tasks can vary, from combatants to cooks, spies, messengers and even sex slaves. Moreover, the use of children for acts of terror, including as suicide bombers, has emerged as a phenomenon of modern warfare. Each year, the UN receives reports of children as young as 8 or 9 years old associated with armed groups.

No matter their role, child associated with parties to conflict are exposed to acute levels of violence – as witnesses, direct victims and as forced participants. Some are injured and have to live with disabilities for the rest of their lives.

In 2014, with UNICEF, the Special Representative launched the campaign “Children, Not Soldiers” to bring about a global consensus that child soldiers should not be used in conflict. The campaign was designed to generate momentum, political will and international support to turn the page once and for all on the recruitment of children by national security forces in conflict situations.

Before the campaign ended in 2016, over 130,000 boys and girls were released as a result of Action Plans mandated by the UN Security Council aimed at ending and preventing the recruitment and use of children in conflict.

But in 2024 UN News reported that the recruitment of child soldiers is on the rise again, despite global commitments. The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict declared that the increase in the use of military force by governments and regimes has wreaked havoc on children, in situations such as Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza; Sudan; Lebanon; Myanmar and Ukraine.

Instead of ending the practice, armed groups have increased recruitment and use of children for armed conflict purposes, from Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the Lake Chad basin, Mozambique, the Sahel, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Haiti.

Most of the impacted children were abducted and forcibly recruited. Most of these children are girls who have suffered rape and sexual violence, and have been bought, sold and trafficked.

This page is part of the Children and War Project.