· In 87 countries children are recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and non-state armed groups.

· 73 countries are known to uphold the principle that no one under the age of 18 be recruited militarily. The situation remains unclear in 25 countries.

Areas of Progress
· In the last year, 80 countries have signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which sets 18 as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, for compulsory recruitment, and for any recruitment by non-governmental armed groups. Five have ratified (Canada, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Andorra and the Democratic Republic of Congo). The protocol is expected to go into force by the end of the year.

· Several governments have adopted new legislation raising the minimum age of recruitment to 18, including Colombia, Finland, Italy, Portugal and South Africa. Several non-governmental armed groups have also made commitments not to recruit children under the age of 18, for example the Restoration Council of the Shan State and the Shan State Army in Myanmar.

· The use of child soldiers in Latin America, the Middle East and the Balkans has decreased markedly as conflicts with high rates of child soldiering have come to an end. These include the civil wars in Central America, Lebanon, the Iraq-Iran war and the conflicts in the Balkans.

· Recent demobilizations of child soldiers have taken place in Sierra Leone (by the Revolutionary United Front) and Southern Sudan (by the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army).

Common issues
Widely perceived to be a cheap and expendable commodity, child soldiers tend to receive little or no training before being thrust into the front lines.

Children may begin participating in conflict from as young as seven years of age. Some serve as porters or messengers, others as spies. In Myanmar, for instance, children have been forced to sweep roads with tree branches or brooms to detect or detonate mines. As soon as children are strong enough to handle an assault rifle or semi-automatic weapon (normally at 10 years of age) they may be used in frontline roles.

Child soldiers are often treated brutally and punishments for mistakes or desertions are severe. In many countries, child soldiers who are captured, escape or surrender often face ill-treatment, torture or even death. In Colombia, the location of re-integration programs is a closely guarded secret since child soldiers face severe security risks, including death.

Girls
Child soldiers are not just boys with guns: in many countries girls too are used as soldiers, though generally in smaller numbers than boys. In Sri Lanka, for instance, young Tamil girls, often orphans, have been systematically recruited by the opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Dubbed "Birds of Freedom" many are reportedly trained as suicide bombers as they may better evade government security.

Girls are particularly at risk of rape, sexual slavery and abuse, although the exploitation of boys for these purposes is also reported.

Even in the supposedly sophisticated armed forces of industrialised countries, young recruits - especially girls - are subject to 'hazing', harassment and abuse. In the United States, one school district in Washington banned recruiters from schools after several Army recruiters from a local recruiting station were investigated for sexual harassment of high school girls. In recent years cases of bullying and humiliation of under-18 recruits in the British Army have included mock execution, forced simulation of sexual acts, 'regimental baths' in vomit and urine and the forced ingestion of mud.

Consequences
Besides the risk of death or injury in combat, child soldiers suffer disproportionately from the rigours of military life. Younger children collapse under heavy loads; malnutrition, respiratory and skin infections and other ailments are frequent. Child soldiers may also be at additional risk of drug and alcohol abuse (often used to recruit children or desensitise them to violence), sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and unwanted pregnancies. Auditory and visual problems are common, along with landmine injuries.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Sub-Saharan Africa
More than 120,000 children, some no more than 7 or 8 years of age are currently fighting in armed conflicts across Africa. Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda.

· Some children have been recruited from across their borders: in 2000, Namibian children were reportedly recruited by Angolan forces in the border region; Ugandan and Rwandan armed forces recruited children to militias they have backed in the DRC's civil war; Kenyan street-children have reportedly been recruited by Burundi Hutu militias active in the same conflict; Rwandan forces recruited children in neighbouring countries to fight in both the DRC and Burundi.

· In Sierra Leone more than 5,000 children served among government and opposition forces, a further 5,000 are estimated to have been recruited for labour among armed groups. In 2000 reports emerged of armed groups forcing children to work in diamond fields under their control. In recent weeks the RUF released more than 700 child soldiers as a result of peace talks, but child solders have been demobilised and re-recruited in the past.

· In Uganda, the LRA has systematically abducted over 10,000 children from their schools, communities and homes to camps in Sudan, forcing them to commit atrocities and become sexual slaves. Children who attempt to escape, resist, cannot keep up or become ill are killed.

Middle East and North Africa
In the past two decades the Middle East and North Africa has witnessed some of the worst and most egregious cases of the exploitation of children as soldiers. Today, while the situation is vastly improved, children under 18 across the region continue to serve with government and opposition armed forces or to be subject to various forms of militarisation in their communities and schools.

· Sudan has one of the worst child soldier problems in the world: children as young as 12 have been forcibly recruited into government-aligned and separatist groups in the south of the country. The Government of Sudan has also provided support and protection to the Lord's Resistance Army (see above), responsible for the abduction, brutal treatment and sexual slavery of over 10,000 Ugandan children.

· In Iraq, thousands of children aged 10 to 15 participate in the Ashbal Saddam (Saddam Lion Cubs) and receive training in the use of small arms, hand-to-hand combat and infantry tactics.

· Various Kurdish armed groups in northern Iraq, Iran and Turkey have reportedly used children as young as ten. Opposition group in Algeria and tribal groups in Yemen have also used child soldiers.

Americas
Although the incidence of child soldiering has reduced and conflicts receded across the region, in some countries children continue to fight in internal conflicts or be forcibly recruited into government armed forces. The countries most affected by this problem have been Colombia and Peru, although large numbers of children are serving in the Paraguayan armed forces and problems are reported in Mexico.

· Over 14,000 Colombian children have been fighting with guerrilla groups and paramilitaries.

· In Paraguay, 56 under-18s died during their compulsory military service, six of them under the age of 18 in 2000 alone.

· The US has acknowledged that 17-year-old soldiers served in US military operations in the Gulf War, Somalia and Bosnia.

Asia and the Pacific
The worst affected countries in the region have been Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and, in the recent past, Cambodia.
· The Taliban that controls much of Afghanistan's territory continues to recruit young men trained and indoctrinated in Islamic schools, or madrasas, in neighbouring Pakistan. The Northern Alliance is also reported to have stepped up recruitment of children as its military situation deteriorates.

· Myanmar has one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world, both within governmental armed forces and non-governmental armed groups.

· The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka has thousands of children serving in its ranks, despite repeated commitments not to recruit below 17.

· Children have joined political and sectarian militias in Indonesia and are fighting in Aceh, Papua and Kalimantan.

Europe, Russia and Central Asia
Children have participated in several European conflicts in recent years, mostly with armed opposition groups but sometimes with government-aligned paramilitaries. Children have spied, conveyed messages, carried weapons and ammunition, and, inevitably, killed and been killed in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, southeast Turkey, Kosovo and Macedonia.

· In the last couple of weeks, an Albanian rebel commander stated to journalists that the National Liberation Army is using children against government forces in Macedonia.

· There are disturbing reports about the attachment of young orphans and street children as young as nine to military units and camps in Russia.

· The United Kingdom is the only European country to routinely send 17-year-olds into combat, even though they are not allowed under national legislation to drink, vote in elections or even join the police force.