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Every 5 years Parliament passes an Armed Forces Act which provides the basis for military law in the UK. This is an important opportunity to address issues relating to human rights in the military. ForcesWatch will be working with others to raise these issues, including:

• concerns over the recruitment of under 18 year olds with no discharge as of right after 6 months.
• terms of service are complicated, confusing and severely restricting, yet unlike any other employment, breaching them can lead to a criminal conviction.
• the system for registering a conscientious objection is opaque and little information about it is available to serving personnel.
• those in the armed forces are excluded from much human rights legislation. They are not allowed to form a union, speak in public or join political organisations.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: On 19 June 2011, the government announced that it would give teenage soldiers the right to leave the armed forces up until age 18 if they are unhappy. With other organisations, ForcesWatch has been campaigning for under-18s to have the right to leave the forces, and we welcome this development - see more.  This is a significant improvement on the current situation which gives under 18s the right to leave only between the 2nd and 6th month of service. Additionally, the legislation allows for a possible reduction in the notice period of 12 months for those aged over 18. These changes came into force in July 2011 - read more here. We will continue to monitor whether recruits are made aware of these new rights.