Should the armed forces recruit 16-year-olds?

Rachel Taylor, from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, argues that it is time for British armed forces to join the rest of NATO and stop recruiting people as young as 16.

Until ten years ago it was standard practice for the UK to deploy under-18s into hostilities. They were on the frontline in the Balkans, the Gulf and the Falklands. However, since the coming into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2002 (ratified by the UK in 2003) the routine deployment of under-18s has been prohibited in international law. The UK, like other states parties to the treaty, now takes measures to prevent the deployment of under-18s. Deployment of under-18s now appears archaic and abhorrent to the public and policy makers alike.

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