
Is the International Against the use of Child Soldiers. Geneva Call is working in 10 countries to prohibit the use of children in hostilities by armed groups. Our countries of operations include Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia.
17 armed groups have signed Geneva Call's Deed of Comitment protectecting children in armed conflict including the Kurdish armed forces in Syria. For the sixth time since the Syrian Kurdish armed forces signed this Deed in 2014, a team from Geneva Call went to Syria to monitor the situation related to the use of child soldiers by those forces.
Even if cases of child use have still been reported recently, the following results were achieved:
according to the Kurdish armed forces, 214 children under 16 have been demobilized, and 49 others between 16 and 17 were discharged from active military service;
three centres have been opened to take in these children — should a return to their family be impossible — one for children under 16, run by the civilian administration, and two for 16- and 17-year-olds, run by the Kurdish armed forces in Syria;
a sanctions mechanism has been put in place for officers who do not respect the command order: the Kurdish armed forces announced that at least seven officers had been sanctioned for not respecting the Deed of Commitment (some had been expelled, others had been demoted);
a monitoring mechanism has been put in place for the inspection of military camps, front lines and recruiting centres and to check on the age of combatants;
the level of awareness of the prohibition against using children in hostilities has risen significantly in the ranks of the YPG/YPJ, the media and among civilian populations (we have received more and more letters from concerned families), partly because of our trainings;
the YPG/YPJ has publicly answered the different allegations by the media (local and international) or human rights organizations, thus showing that they are taking their commitment seriously.
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