Resources: Child military enlistment
In 2019, CRIN took over the campaign to end the military recruitment of children in the UK from our partner, Child Soldiers International (CSI), when the organisation closed.
This page compiles resources on the recruitment of children by state armed forces, produced by CRIN and by CSI through years of research and campaigning on the issue. If you are looking for information on this topic that is not listed below, please contact us.
Essential resources
Briefing: Why raising the recruitment age would benefit everyone (2021)
Report: Why 18 matters: A rights-based analysis of child recruitment and executive summary (2018)
Article: Has the time come for an all-adult army? (2021)
Reports and briefings
British army: Harm and abuse of child recruits, a timeline (2024)
The Pressure Cooker: Child recruitment and suicide in the British armed forces (2023)
British army: Education for recruits aged under 18 (2022)
Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for its review of the United Kingdom (2022)
Submission to the Defence Committee’s follow-up to the Women in the Armed Forces inquiry, and additional submission (2022)
Briefing: British army: Harm and abuse of child recruits (2022)
Submission to the Defence Committee’s Women in the Armed Forces inquiry (2021)
Submission to the Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill (2021)
Recent research on outcomes for junior armed forces entrants: A response (2021)
The military case for transition to all-adult armed forces (2020)
Conscription by poverty? Deprivation and army recruitment in the UK (2019)
Youngest British army recruits come disproportionately from England’s most deprived constituencies (2019)
Soldiers at 16: Sifting fact from fiction and endnotes (2016)
The British armed forces: Why parental consent safeguards are inadequate (2016)
The British army: Estimated recruitment requirement of an all-adult force (2016)
Army recruitment: Comparing cost-effectiveness of recruiting from age 16 versus age 18 (2014)
Young age at army enlistment is associated with greater war zone risks (2013)
One step forward: The case for ending recruitment of minors by the British armed forces (2013)
Louder than words: An agenda for action to end state use of child soldiers and Executive summary and 10-point checklist (2012)
Mind the gap: Education for minors in the British armed forces (2012)
Catch 16-22: Recruitment and retention of minors in the British Armed Forces (2011)
Joint letters
Open letter to Ofsted re. welfare concerns at the Army Foundation College, with reply (2021)
Joint letter to the Secretary of State for Defence from children’s and human rights organisations (2021)
Open letter on armed forces recruitment age from church leaders and civil society (2013)
Testimony
Testimonies: Abuse of children in UK armed forces training
Sources
Trades Union Congress, UK Compliance with major ILO Conventions 2019 (2019) and Annex 3: Armed Forces Recruitment and Convention 182 (2019)
British army, Junior Entry Review - Final Report (2019)
Freedom of Information request: Education levels of the intake at the Army Foundation College (2015)
Freedom of Information request: Education offer at Catterick and Pitbright (2015)
Witness statement of Brigadier Nick Cavanagh (2015)
Army Foundation College Independent Advisory Panel, Annual Report (2014)
Home > Issues > Military enlistment > Resources: Child military enlistment