Child soldiers: CRC Country Briefs – Pakistan

Supplementary Information to Pakistan’s second periodic report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. While there is currently no conscription in Pakistan, government armed forces recruit volunteers at the age of 16. There is, however, no evidence of deployment before the age of 18. The government has signed but not ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC-OP-CAC) on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Children, some under 14, have been recruited by armed groups fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan and in Jammu and Kashmir. Madrassas in Pakistan, some sponsored by political parties and factions in Pakistan, have played an important role in the training and recruitment (sometimes forced) of children for political and military activities in these conflict areas.