THE CRIME OF RECRUITMENT AND INVOLVEMENT OF CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT IN LIGHT OF THE PROVISIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW "ANALYTICAL STUDY"

Abstract

The international community has suffered from the phenomenon of child recruitment and their involvement in armed conflicts, which is still increasing continuously in international and non-international armed conflicts, despite the protection of children approved by many international documents, as children are targeted for recruitment by armed forces and armed groups and used in hostilities and in Espionage or acts of sabotage, but have become tools for perpetrating massacres and grave violations of international humanitarian law. And there has become an urgent necessity to prohibit the participation of children in armed conflicts, because it is against humanity to allow children to participate in wars and endanger their lives, so many international documents have been exposed to the issue of child recruitment and tried to give them maximum protection to keep them away from the danger of war, either by prohibiting their recruitment or Setting a certain age for recruitment or giving them special treatment when arrested as soldiers of war.

International humanitarian law prohibits the recruitment and participation of children in armed conflicts, and the International Criminal Court is tasked with prosecuting those responsible for the crime of recruiting children and their involvement in armed conflicts, and despite international law criminalizing the recruitment and use of children in military operations, the phenomenon of child soldiers remains a constant and a source of concern for the international community It needs concerted efforts to eliminate it, as the legal framework for this phenomenon does not need an additional development of its rules at the present time as much as it needs to activate and apply these rules, the problem lies in the application and not a problem of legislation.