CHILDREN IN THE RANKS: THE RECRUITMENT AND USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS BY NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS AND THE LIMITS OF INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY
AUTHOR – SRISHTI GUPTA, STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, AMITY UNIVERSITY MADHYA PRADESH, GWALIOR
BEST CITATION – SRISHTI GUPTA, CHILDREN IN THE RANKS: THE RECRUITMENT AND USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS BY NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS AND THE LIMITS OF INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (9) OF 2026, PG. 647-653, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344. DOI – https://doi.org/10.65393/IJLRV6I970
Abstract
Few practices of contemporary armed conflict trouble the conscience as much as the use of children to fight the wars of adults, and few are as closely associated with the conduct of non-State armed groups. This paper examines how international law has responded to the recruitment and use of child soldiers by such groups. It traces the prohibition from its treaty origins through its recognition as a war crime, and it argues that the decisive moment came not with the drafting of any treaty but with the first judgment of the International Criminal Court, which made the recruitment of children the centre of a completed prosecution. The paper then asks why, despite a prohibition that is now about as clear as international law ever becomes, children continue to be recruited; and it suggests that the answer lies less in any gap in the substantive law than in the familiar weakness of enforcement against actors who fight beyond the reach of the courts. It concludes that the prosecution of commanders, valuable as it is, must be combined with prevention, direct engagement of armed groups, and the patient work of reintegration if the law is to make a difference to the children it exists to protect.
Keywords: child soldiers; non-State armed groups; international humanitarian law; war crimes; Lubanga; reintegration.