Child Soldiers: Removing the Child from the War and the War from the Child - Special Report

Child Soldiers are denied their basic human rights. They are subjected to inhuman treatment, and frequently abused emotionally, sexually and physically. Their childhoods are sabotaged, causing physical and psychological trauma that is often long-term and wide-ranging.

This special report which looks at the involvement of child soldiers in wars in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s is all too relevant today, as tens of thousands of children under the age of 18 continue to serve in armed conflict around the world.

Child Soldiers: Removing the Child from the War and the War from the Child:

- Explains the reasons for recruitment of child soldiers both forced and ‘voluntary’

- Examines the complex social, political and legal contexts of the involvement of children and young people as soldiers

- Explores the nature of violence for child soldiers from a psychosocial perspective

- Evaluates best practice and programmes for the psychosocial reintegration and rehabilitation of children who have been demobilised