Child Soldiers
"Universal ratification of the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict will establish an international moral consensus that no child should take part in hostilities or be involuntarily recruited and that former child soldiers should be assisted by their governments after a life of violence and distress."
Ban Ki-Moon - Secretary-General of the United Nations
The Optional Protocol
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC)
The OPAC came into forced on 12 February 2002. This Protocol sets 18 as the minimum age for mandatory recruitment into armed forces and prohibit any conflict hostile actions relating to underage children. The Protocol also requires the militaries to examine their soldiers to ensure they are legal to take war tasks.
The Protocols Additional
Additional Protocols to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 (1977):
These protocols include especial rules to protect civilians and combatants in conflict areas.
The protocols set 15 as the minimum age for enlistment or use in armed conflict. This minimum standard applies to all parties, both governmental and non-governmental, in both international and internal armed conflict.
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is established in Rome on 17 July 1998[ and it came into force on 1 July 2002. This mentioned four main international crimes which are genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The Statute criminates any acts relating to recruitment and using children who are under 15 as a war crime.
The International Labour Organisation's Fundamental Conventions (ILOFC)
The International Labour Organisation Worst Forms of Child Labour Conventions adopted in June 1999 and entered into force in November 2000. In Article 3, the Conventions defines the term “the worst forms of child labour” as "all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict. "