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Never again: Children should not fight adults’ wars

Amman Conference
UNICEF and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

April 10, 2001

Amman, Jordan -- Never again should present and future generations be allowed to serve as child soldiers and exploited in armed conflicts, urged delegates to the Amman Conference on the Use of children as soldiers in the Middle East and North Africa.

"All States should criminalize the use and recruitment of children under 18 in their national legislations," added representatives from 14 countries in the region.

Over 110 senior government and military officials, UN child-rights’ experts and NGOs from across the region attending the Amman Conference today adopted the Amman Declaration on the Use of Children as Soldiers. The Amman Declaration calls on governments, armed groups and trans-national companies -- both inside and outside the region -- to join the global consensus to ban the use children as soldiers.

"All of us -- governments, armed groups, transnational companies, NGOs, media and the general public -- have the responsibility to ensure that children do not fight adults’ wars."

The Amman Declaration also calls on:

  • Armed forces and armed groups to end the recruitment and use of children under 18, including girls, and immediately demobilize or release into safety children already being used as soldiers.
  • States, including those outside the region, not to supply small arms or light weapons to all those who use child soldiers and to publicly condemn the exploitation of children in armed conflict.
  • States to ensure special protection of all child detainees, child participants in armed conflict or civil strife, and children living under occupation.
  • Governments to provide adequate resources to ensure the physical and psycho-social rehabilitation and effective reintegration into society of demobilized soldiers recruited as children.

"As a sign of their commitment to protecting the rights of children, states should sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the involvement of children in armed conflict in the run-up to the UN Special Session on Children to be held in September."
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