Book of Resolutions: Child Soldiers

“Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children” (Luke 18:16).

The use of children as soldiers is abhorrent and unacceptable. Children represent the future of human civilization and the future of every society. To permit them to be used as pawns of warfare, whether as targets or perpetrators, is to cast a shadow on the future.

As armed conflict proliferates around the world, an increasing number of children are exposed to the brutalities of war. In numerous countries, boys and girls under the age of 18 are recruited as child soldiers by armed forces and groups, either forcibly or voluntarily. Reports by the United Nations and Child Soldiers International reveal:

More than 20,000 grave violations of children’s rights around the world, including their recruitment as soldiers in armed conflicts.

• The majority of the world’s child soldiers are involved in a variety of armed political groups. These include government-backed paramilitary groups, militias, and self-defense units operating with government support in many conflict zones. Others include armed groups opposed to central government rule, groups composed of ethnic, religious, and other minorities; and clan-based or factional groups fighting governments and each other to defend territory and resources.
• Most child soldiers are aged between 14 and 18. Some children as young as 8 years of age, however, are being forcibly recruited, coerced, and induced to become combatants. The children most likely to become soldiers are from impoverished and marginalized backgrounds or separated from their families.
• Hundreds of thousands of under-18-year-olds are estimated to have become a part of armed forces. While thousands were recruited, others were forcibly conscripted in military roundups to replenish numbers in unpopular armies. Still others were enlisted in countries where the lack of a functioning birth registration system made it impossible to verify the age of recruits and ensure protection of under-18-year-olds from active military service. Forced abductions, sometimes of large numbers of children, continue to occur in some countries.
• Sometimes, children become soldiers in order to survive.
• Military training of children can cause psychological trauma, altered personalities, and long-term developmental damage. This training and the military environment subject children to bullying, physical violence, and sexual harassment. In most cases, child recruits have no right or opportunity to leave.
• Child soldiers lose their childhoods and often their lives. Perpetuating cycles of violence, the damage extends beyond the children to their families and communities.

A military unit can be something of a refuge, serving as a kind of surrogate family. Children may join if they believe that this is the only way to guarantee regular meals, clothing, or medical attention. Parents may encourage their daughters to become soldiers if their marriage prospects are poor.

Much has been achieved to stop the use of child soldiers since the General Conference adopted a resolution on the matter in 2000. Substantial progress has been made in establishing an international legal and policy framework for protecting children from involvement in armed conflict. The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children came into force in 2002. It sets 18 as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, for compulsory recruitment by governments, and for all recruitment into armed groups. The International Criminal Court defines all recruitment of children under the age of 15, by governments and armed groups, and their active participation in hostilities as a war crime in both international and noninternational armed conflict.

Even with this progress, much work remains to be done to protect the lives and dignity of all children. Therefore, individuals, churches, faith communities, and conferences are urged to connect with the General Board of Global Ministries and the  General Board of Church and Society so that together we can:

• Encourage partnership and collaboration among international organizations, including faith-based groups that monitor governments and armed groups in the recruitment and mobilization of children for military purposes, and ensuring adherence to international norms and agreements prohibiting child soldiers.

• work with international organizations, faith groups, and other nongovernmental organizations to ban the use of child soldiers;

• urge governments to sign the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict;

• promote and advocate for government funding of demobilization, disarmament and reintegration programs specifically aimed at child soldiers, taking particular account of the needs of former girl soldiers; and

• provide resources and assistance to central conferences for programs to rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers into their families and communities.

ADOPTED 2000
REVISED AND READOPTED 2008, 2012, 2024

RESOLUTION #3085, 2008, 2012, 2016 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION #66, 2004 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION #60, 2000 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS

See Social Principles, ¶ 163, Basic Rights and Freedoms, B.

From The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church - 2020/2024. Copyright © 2024 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.