Save the Children of War! Thoughts on Child Recruitment

The article addresses the problematic and urgent questions arising from the phenomenon of child soldiering. Children are cheap, obedient and easy to engage in fearless killing. These characteristics compel the leaders of armed groups to choose children for improving their armed forces. Fighting, lack of family and all the abuse which child-soldiers suffer cause — beyond the physical damage — very serious psycho-social problems. Reintegration is extremely difficult because of the way their personality has changed as a consequence of war. Therefore, prevention of child recruitment has a great significance which shall be ensured by proper legal regulation also in the field of international law.