حظر اشتراك الأطفال في النزاعات المسلحة بمقتضى القانون الدولي الإنساني و متطلبات تطبيقه

Abstract EN

Human societies have known different types of exploitation, conscripting children for combat could be one of its hideous forms which appeared in the past and is still currently widespread.

In spite of international legal efforts which have been exerted to face such conduct and the continuous efforts to hold its perpetrators accountable, along with the developments in human rights – including children's rights – on the international level which is expressed by international protection for children's rights in the form of agreements and legal conventions and principles, but this did not prevent those of special interests and war traders from violating children's rights and using them as soldiers, which places us before a painful undeniable reality which is the escalation in the numbers of children participating in armed international/internal conflicts, where some statistics point out that hundreds of thousands of children are being willingly/unwillingly conscripted whether in governmental armed forces which follow some countries or by armed groups, and then they are participated in armed conflicts.

Some actually participate in combat operations while some have a supporting role for such operations.

The rule of banning children's participation in armed conflicts according to international law necessitates determining the meaning of “child fighter” under this law, identifying the reasons which stand behind children's enrollment in military work (on the assumption that these reasons are diversified) with shedding light upon the available legal rules to enhance the ban and their effectiveness, thereby judging their sufficiency.

Also, determining the practical application's requirements for protection against conscription, by guaranteeing its efficiency, which is what this study aims to illustrate.