news about the Armed Forces Bill 2011

Quakers have been central to a campaign that resulted in a change to government policy last week, as a minister announced that teenage soldiers will be given the right to discharge at any time before turning eighteen.

The government has today promised to give teenage soldiers the right to leave the armed forces up until age 18 if they are unhappy. ForcesWatch and other NGOs have been campaigning on this and other issues relating to under-18s in the armed forces as the Arned Forces Bill does through parliament.

The report from the JHRC on the Armed Forces Bill 'raises a number of significant human rights concerns in connection with the Bill' and 'calls on the Government to clarify the arrangements for the discharge of under-18s from the Armed Forces and to amend the service commitment made by  under-18s to bring it in line with the commitment made by recruits of other ages.'

The report by the House of Commons Committee on the Armed Forces Bill has rejected proposals to raise the minimum age of recruitment to 18.  But ForcesWatch, an NGO that submitted evidence to the Committee, suggests that the wording of the report reveals a lack of clarity over the law in this area, even among MPs and senior military personnel.