The recent ILO and UNICEF Child Labour Global Estimates for 2020 show that for the first time in the last two decades, progress on ending child labour has stagnated and figures are starting to rise again. The pandemic and related confinement measures have also made it more difficult for child rights organizations to monitor child recruitment and use and to put in place education and healthcare programmes contributing to halting and preventing this practice.

The closure of some of the most protective environments for children, namely schools and child friendly spaces, coupled with the loss of family income, may have incentivized parties to conflict to take advantage of children’s increased vulnerabilities or pushed children to join armed groups and forces or engage in other forms of exploitative labour to raise family income. The COVID-19 pandemic has put an additional burden on the protection of conflict affected children. Over the last 25 years, many countries have shown their commitments to protect children against recruitment and use by parties to conflict through the ratification and implementation of key international instruments, by releasing all children from their ranks and by putting in place mitigation measures for their security forces such as age verification mechanisms, child protection trainings and military command orders. The UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour (2021) provides an excellent opportunity for the international community to take concrete steps and accelerate action to put an end to this scourge. The international community has committed to ending the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict by 2025. Armed conflict is a tragic reality for millions of children and in at least 20 countries around the world, girls and boys are recruited as soldiers, lookouts, porters, spies, cooks, or sexual slaves. Devastated, Frederique joined an armed group, seeking both protection and revenge for the death of his loved ones.įrederique’s story is shocking but unfortunately not rare. Many people died in the hostilities, including his brother and mother. Frederique was in school in Bambari, Central African Republic, when the militia attacked.

Uk and children and armed conflict