What makes child recruitment into armed conflict more likely? Violations against children in armed conflict pose a significant challenge to conflict resolution, long-term peacebuilding efforts, and international stability, yet little data are available on a global scale to understand the scope and causes of child recruitment into conflict. This article makes two contributions towards closing this analytical gap. First, utilising annual reports of the United Nations Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, this article codes child recruitment and other grave violations against children for 28 countries from 2006 to 2015 producing a new data set. Second, using this data set, this article examines the broad role of displacement in shaping child recruitment into armed conflict. Ultimately, this article finds that displacement within a country is positively and statistically significantly correlated with violations against children in armed conflict to include child recruitment and introduces policy recommendations for engaging this finding.
AchvarinaV.ReichS. (2006). No place to hide: Refugees, displaced persons, and the recruitment of child soldiers. International Security, 31, 127–164.
2.
AmesB. (2010). Methodological problems in the study of child soldiers. In GatesS.ReichS. (Eds.), Child soldiers in the age of fractured states (pp. 14–26). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
3.
AtkinsonK. (2018). Policy and possibilities of humanitarian development: Displaced women and peace-building features of the UNHCR. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37, 408–439.
BeberB.BlattmanC. (2013). The logic of child soldiering and coercion. International Organization, 67, 65–104.
6.
BeckerJ. (2010). Child recruitment in Burma, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. In GatesS.ReichS. (Eds.), Child soldiers in the age of fractured states (pp. 108–120). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
7.
BlouinM. (2009). The economics of child soldiering. Cahier de recherche/Working Paper, 9, 20.
8.
BrettR.McCallinM.O’SheaR. (1998). Children: The invisible soldiers. Stockholm, Sweden: Rädda Barnen.
9.
ChoiS. W.SalehyanI. (2013). No good deed goes unpunished: Refugees, humanitarian aid, and terrorism. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 301, 53–75.
10.
ChristiansenC.UtasM.VighH. E. (2006). Navigating youth, generating adulthood: Social becoming in an African Context. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
11.
CohnI.Goodwin-GilG. (1994). Child soldiers: The role of children in armed conflict. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
12.
DrumblM. (2012). Reimagining child soldiers in international law and policy. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
13.
GatesS.ReichS. (2010). Introduction. In GatesS.ReichS. (Eds.), Child soldiers in the age of fractured states (pp. 3–8). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
14.
HaerR. (2019). Children and armed conflict: Looking at the future and learning from the past. Third World Quarterly, 40, 74–91.
15.
KingG.KeohaneR. O.VerbaS. (1994). Designing social inquiry: Scientific inference in qualitative research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
16.
LasleyT.ThyneC. (2015). Secession, legitimacy and the use of child soldiers. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 32, 289–308.
17.
LischerS. (2007). Causes and consequences of conflict-induced displacement. Civil Wars, 9, 142–155.
18.
LischerS. (2010). War, displacement, and the recruitment of child soldiers in the democratic republic of Congo. In GatesS.ReichS. (Eds.), Child soldiers in the age of fractured states (pp. 143–159). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
19.
MaclureR.DenovM. (2006). I didn’t want to die so I joined them: Structuration and the process of becoming boy soldiers in Sierra Leone. Terrorism and Political Violence, 18, 119–135.
PugelJ. (2010). Disaggregating the causal factors unique to child soldiering: The case of Liberia. In GatesS.ReichS. (Eds.), Child soldiers in the age of fractured states (pp. 160–182). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
22.
RosenD. M. (2015). Child soldiers in the western imagination: From patriots to victims. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
23.
SalehyanI.GleditschK. (2006). Refugees and the spread of civil war. International Organization, 60, 335–366.
24.
SaninF. (2010). Organizing minors: The case of Colombia. In GatesS.ReichS. (Eds.), Child soldiers in the age of fractured states (pp. 121–142). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
TynesR.EarlyB. (2015). Governments, rebels, and the use of child soldiers in internal armed conflicts: A global analysis, 1987-2007. Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, 21, 79–110.
27.
United Nations Children’s Fund. (2014). Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism for Syria in Jordan (Briefing). New York, NY: UNICEF.
28.
United Nations Children’s Fund. (2015). Monitoring and reporting mechanism on grave violations of children’s rights in situations of armed conflict (UNICEF child protection issues, report). Reterived fromhttps://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_57997.html
UNICEF, OSRSG CAAC, & DPKO. (2013). Global Good Practices Study: Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism on Grave Violations against Children in Situations of Armed Conflict (Technical report). Reterived fromhttp://www.mrmtools.org
Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. (2008). Getting it done and doing it right: A global study on the united nations-led monitoring and reporting mechanism on children and armed conflict(Technical report). Reterived fromhttps://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/5364/pdf/5364.pdf
34.
WessellsM. (2006). Child soldiers: From violence to protection. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
