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Originally Posted by Makarov
I do not believe that this is necessarily correct. The Convention in the Rights of the Child defines a child as a person under 18. Therefore, presumably, any "soldier" under 18 is a "child soldier".
UN Resolution 1460 makes it a crime against humanity to employ children under 15 as soldiers.
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From wikipedia:
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"In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 38, proclaimed: "State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities." However, children who are over the age of 15 but under the age of 18 are still voluntarily able to take part in combat as soldiers."
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There's another optional protocol that states governments should take reasonable steps to avoid having children under the age of 18 take part in hostilities. It only applies to states that've actually ratified it. I'm pretty sure the Taliban was not one of those states.
I know its sad, but in many parts of the world its very common for children under the age of 18 to be soldiers.