A/HRC/43/CRP.6 B. Recruitment and use of children in hostilities “The younger ones are very good fighters. They fight with enthusiasm and are fearless. Fighters who are 14 -17 years old are on the frontline” Person associated with an armed group, Dar’a, 2013 31. Children, most frequently boys, but also on occasion girls, have been used in hostilities by parties to the conflict for combat roles, to acts as spies, informants, or to serve at checkpoints, in violation of international humanitarian law. 26 Children have been forcibly recruited, enlisted or lured into violence out of economic instability or grief, after witnessing violent acts inflicted on their loved ones by belligerent parties. A child’s consent to enlist, and therefore join military ranks voluntarily, is not a valid justification to the use and recruitment of children in armed conflict.27 Government forces and associated militia 32. As the conflict intensified and with many young men eligible for conscription fleeing the country, the Government became reliant on paramilitary groups and militia, initially the shabbiha and later in 2013, the National Defence Forces, a pro-Government self-defence force. Recruits were drawn primarily from communities loyal to the Government and children were used to staff checkpoints in Aleppo, Dar’a and Tartous. Teenage boys also joined the National Defence Forces, with interviewees describing how three 17-year-old boys were forcibly recruited in 2013 at checkpoints in Aleppo. One of the boys was sent to the frontlines, and killed within two weeks. In October 2013, in Ataman, Dar’a, children from the age of 14 were armed and trained by popular committees. 28 A defector from a detention facility run by intelligence forces in Homs described how he would often be deployed with members from the National Defence Forces, many of whom were aged 15 and above, to checkpoints in the vicinity of Homs city. 33. Government forces and affiliated militia used children to locate members of armed groups, or act as informants, in violation of international humanitarian law. 29 In the early days of the conflict, multiple accounts from Aleppo described how children as young as six were used as spies or messengers by pro-Government popular committees, exposing them to retaliation and severe punishment if captured by opposition armed groups. One armed group fighter who was interviewed by the Commission in 2014 explained that children would be detained indefinitely as a security measure if apprehended by Government forces and associated militia when suspected of collecting intelligence. 34. Teenage boys faced particular pressure as they attracted the attention of security forces from the early days of the conflict. Interviewees consistently reported how adolescent boys were subjected to harassment or humiliating treatment when crossing checkpoints in Dar’a, with one woman describing how, in 2013, her well-built 14-year-old son would be questioned often about conscription at each one of the checkpoints around her village. Parents interviewed by the Commission described how fears that their children might be drawn into violence, pushed them to relocate their sons outside of the country. In one such case, around 500 unaccompanied children, almost all boys over the age of 14, were registered in 2013 in a refugee camp near the Syrian border. 26 27 28 29 10 See ICRC Rule 136 and 137 noting, respectively, that “Children must not be recruited into armed forces or armed groups” and that “Children must not be allowed to take part in hostilities”. See Special Court for Sierra Leone, Prosecutor v Brima, Kamara, and Kanu, (AFRC Trial Judgement), 20 June 2007, para 735. Armed self-defence groups formed by pro-Government communities who protected their neighbourhoods and localities from anti-Government armed groups and participated in military operations alongside Government forces. They were allegedly armed and equipped by the Government and, in some areas, by external sympathisers. See ICRC Rule 137. See also Special Court for Sierra Leone, Prosecutor v Sesay, Kallon and Gbao, SCSL-04-15-T, Judgement, 2 March 2009, para. 1729.