A/HRC/26/45 the steps taken to eliminate the forced recruitment of minors into the armed forces and rehabilitate and protect the victims (CCPR/C/COD/CO/3, para. 18). 3. Underage recruitment 40. According to the National Service Proclamation, the minimum age for recruitment into national service is 18 years (art. 6). On accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, on 16 February 2005, Eritrea made the following declaration: “The State of Eritrea declares that the minimum age for the recruitment of persons into the armed forces is eighteen years.”10 Despite this unequivocal declaration, children below the age of 18 are forced into conscription in Eritrea. Reportedly, in the 21st round (August 2007–February 2008) at the Sawa Military Training Camp, 3,510 of the 9,938 conscripts at the camp, disaggregated to 1,911 males and 1,599 females, were underage.11 41. The Human Rights Committee has already stated that recruitment and retention in service of a child soldier amounts to a deprivation of liberty under articles 8 and 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR/C/TCD/CO/1, para. 33). Specifically with regard to Eritrea, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) expressed concern over reports of forced underage recruitment and at the detention and illtreatment of boys under the age [of 18] when they were required to serve their compulsory military service. It urged Eritrea to take all possible measures to prevent the recruitment of children and to enforce is legislation strictly (CRC/C/ERI/CO/3, paras. 70 and 71). 42. Grade 12 students are conscripted into the armed forces and undergo military training at the Sawa Military Training Camp. Reportedly some Grade 12 students may be below the age of 18, as the Grade 12 requirement is not based on age, but on performance in school, with many students reaching Grade 12 before their 18th year, including those who may have skipped earlier grades. 43. Those who do not reach Grade 12 are sent to other training sites. Students, both male and female, who drop out of school before reaching Grade 12 are likely to receive “an invitation” to sign up for military training, through the local administration. Minors, some as young as 15 years old, are often picked up during round-ups and sent for military training to Wi’a and other places, with no prospect of release because of their young age, even if parents provide documents, such as a birth certificate, as a proof that the child is underage. 4. Draft evasion and desertion 44. The penalties for draft evasion and desertion can be up to five years imprisonment.12 The wording of the Proclamation violates several obligations that Eritrea has undertaken to respect under international law, including freedom of movement, the right to property and the right to work. Citizens who avoid national service by “escaping abroad” and who do not return until the age of 40 will be “liable to punishment or to imprisonment of 5 years until the age of 50 and their rights to licence, visa, land tenure and work will be suspended.” 10 11 12 See United Nations Treaty Collection, Status of ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Available from https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV11&chapter=4&lang=en. See the Translation of the Report of the Commander of the Sawa Military Training Camp to the Office of the Eritrean President (original document dated 30 June 2008). Available from www.arkokabay.com/news/index.php?otion=com-content&view+article&id=254. Eritrea National Service Proclamation No. 82/1995, art. 37. 9