Myanmar Junta Accused of Surge in Child Soldier Recruitment

[geovalin]

The Irrawaddy, archives

 

The recruitment of child soldiers by Myanmar’s military has sharply increased since the junta activated a conscription law in 2024, with children as young as 12 being forced into combat, Human Rights Watch warned this week.

 

In a report released on 19 June, the UN confirmed over 2,100 verified grave violations against children in 2024 alone, nearly 1,800 of them linked to the forced recruitment and use of child soldiers. Rights groups believe the true figure is likely far higher, given widespread underreporting, fear of reprisals, and the collapse of oversight mechanisms.

 

Since seizing power in a 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military has struggled to maintain troop numbers amid growing resistance from ethnic armed groups and the pro-democracy opposition. In response, it activated a 2010 conscription law in February 2024, mandating military service for men and women—yet children have increasingly been swept up in these drives, despite being legally excluded.

 

Captured fighters, military defectors, and civil society groups have revealed that children have been abducted on their way home from work, or recruited when separated from their families. Some were issued falsified documents stating they were older, then trained and deployed to front-line brigades.

 

Human Rights Watch and the International Labour Organization say the junta’s conscription tactics disproportionately target displaced populations, undocumented youth, and marginalised groups—particularly stateless Rohingya Muslims, who by law cannot be conscripted.

 

“The junta is using children as cannon fodder,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This practice violates Myanmar’s own laws and international agreements it has ratified.”

 

The military is one of the few state actors globally listed by the UN for committing all five “grave violations” against children in conflict, including killings, sexual violence, and attacks on schools. The ILO has since invoked Article 33 of its constitution—a rare rebuke—over Myanmar’s failure to end forced recruitment.

 

Although Myanmar signed a UN-backed action plan in 2012 to end child soldier use, the UN says the practice has now expanded nationwide, with reports from all 14 states and regions. Meanwhile, child fighters have also appeared among anti-junta forces, though typically as volunteers rather than forced recruits.

 

Observers say without urgent international pressure and coordinated rehabilitation efforts, a generation of Myanmar’s children risks being permanently scarred by war.

 

-2025-06-21

[harryviking]

On 6/21/2025 at 3:42 AM, geovalin said:

The Irrawaddy, archives

 

The recruitment of child soldiers by Myanmar’s military has sharply increased since the junta activated a conscription law in 2024, with children as young as 12 being forced into combat, Human Rights Watch warned this week.

 

In a report released on 19 June, the UN confirmed over 2,100 verified grave violations against children in 2024 alone, nearly 1,800 of them linked to the forced recruitment and use of child soldiers. Rights groups believe the true figure is likely far higher, given widespread underreporting, fear of reprisals, and the collapse of oversight mechanisms.

 

Since seizing power in a 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military has struggled to maintain troop numbers amid growing resistance from ethnic armed groups and the pro-democracy opposition. In response, it activated a 2010 conscription law in February 2024, mandating military service for men and women—yet children have increasingly been swept up in these drives, despite being legally excluded.

 

Captured fighters, military defectors, and civil society groups have revealed that children have been abducted on their way home from work, or recruited when separated from their families. Some were issued falsified documents stating they were older, then trained and deployed to front-line brigades.

 

Human Rights Watch and the International Labour Organization say the junta’s conscription tactics disproportionately target displaced populations, undocumented youth, and marginalised groups—particularly stateless Rohingya Muslims, who by law cannot be conscripted.

 

“The junta is using children as cannon fodder,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This practice violates Myanmar’s own laws and international agreements it has ratified.”

 

The military is one of the few state actors globally listed by the UN for committing all five “grave violations” against children in conflict, including killings, sexual violence, and attacks on schools. The ILO has since invoked Article 33 of its constitution—a rare rebuke—over Myanmar’s failure to end forced recruitment.

 

Although Myanmar signed a UN-backed action plan in 2012 to end child soldier use, the UN says the practice has now expanded nationwide, with reports from all 14 states and regions. Meanwhile, child fighters have also appeared among anti-junta forces, though typically as volunteers rather than forced recruits.

 

Observers say without urgent international pressure and coordinated rehabilitation efforts, a generation of Myanmar’s children risks being permanently scarred by war.

 

-2025-06-21

These Child Soldiers will be a problem as soon as the war is over. They will be a reason for serious crime and visitors to stay far away from the country. I say Myanmar will not be the place to go for decades to come.

[Burma Bill]

A disgraceful action by a desperate genocidal Junta trying to stay in power!