Child Soldiers
QUNO has worked since 1979 to raise public awareness about the issue of child soldiers, its causes and consequences, and to develop international standards to prohibit the military recruitment and use in combat of all those under 18 years of age in government armed forces or other armed groups.
Its activities have included working for: -
the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict; and
- the prohibition of military use of children in the International Labour Organisation’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182)
QUNO carried out the research on child soldiers for the UN Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children (the Machel Study). QUNO’s research is published as Rachel Brett & Margaret McCallin: Children the Invisible Soldiers (Stockholm, Rädda Barnen, 1996, 2nd ed. 1998). Following that, QUNO’s child soldiers work focussed more heavily on girl soldiers and on why children become soldiers (published as Rachel Brett & Irma Specht: Young Soldiers Why They Choose to Fight (ILO/Lynne Rienner, 2004)).
QUNO’s work on child soldiers is now primarily carried out through the international Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. QUNO helped to found the Coalition in 1998 and still sits on its Steering Committee. More information about child soldiers and the work of the Coalition can be found at www.child-soldiers.org.
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