The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on the UK government to raise the minimum age of military recruitment from 16 to 18 and to address numerous complaints of the sexual assault, rape and abuse of young recruits. 

The UK ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1991, which means that it has agreed to regularly review its progress on fulfilling its obligations under the Convention. The most recent review happened in May 2023, and CRIN submitted evidence from our work on enlistment of children by the UK armed forces, to help shape the UN’s recommendations. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concluding observations on the state of children's rights in the UK, published on June 2, call on the UK government to end the recruitment of children into its armed forces.

The British army puts at risk children’s rights, safety and welfare

The UK is the only country in Europe to recruit children from age 16 into the armed forces; more soldiers are recruited at 16 than any other age.

• The latest recruitment figures show that in the year 2021-22, one in every five new recruits to the armed forces was a child; one in four in the army (2,800 under-18s were enlisted into the armed forces; 2,030 of them joined the army).

• New figures from the Ministry of Defence also show that, between 2015 and 2021, girls under the age of 18 in the armed forces have made 41 complaints of sexual assault  and rape to the military police, equivalent to five per year, or one for every 40 girls. Known under-reporting of sexual offences means the true prevalence is likely to be substantially higher.

• Between 2015 and 2020, girls in the armed forces were twice as likely as their civilian peers to report a rape or sexual assault to the police.

• Most recruits under the age of 18 train at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate. Under-18 recruits at the College, and their parents, made 60 complaints of violent behaviour by staff between 2014 and 2020.

The UN’s concerns and our call for change

The Committee cited multiple concerns over children’s rights and welfare in the British armed forces. Having received evidence that, in 2021 alone, investigations were opened into the sexual abuse of 22 child recruits at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, the Committee called on the government to ’promptly investigate any reports of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of violence against children… and ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and sanctioned’. (In March 2023, an instructor at the college was convicted of multiple sexual offences over a nine-month period between 2020 and 2021.)

The Committee also called on the UK to stop the practice of enlisting children with the consent of only one parent, as is routine when recruiting from separated families.

“The UK government's continued recruitment of under-18s into the military is unnecessary, harmful and puts the UK well outside international norms. The government must heed the UN's warning and end the recruitment of children into the armed forces immediately.”

~ Jim Patrick Wyke, Campaigns Coordinator at Child Rights International Network (CRIN)

Read the coverage of this press release in The Times and The Canary.

Learn more about our campaign to end military recruitment of under-18s in the UK.