The international law position of child soldiers

This work is devoted to international law, particularly humanitarian law and human rights with emphasis on international legal instruments governing the position of children serving in the armed forces. In this work are discussed various international conventions, as well as mechanisms for the protection of child soldiers. The first chapter defines the position of child soldiers and the specifics of their involvement in military conflicts. The decisive criteria for the involvement of children in government armed forces or non-state army is age. Furthermore there is described into more details the mechanism of conscription into the army. There is difference between voluntary and forced recruitment of child soldiers. The various international legal instruments are analyzed more in detail in chapter two. The issue of Child soldiers is addressed with both the rules of humanitarian law, specifically the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions and Human rights conventions. Special attention is paid to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Analyzed is the only regional convention addressing the problem of child soldiers -the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The issue of child recruitment is also..