Brussels, 27 February 2025 – In war-torn regions where survival is a daily battle, children are stolen from their homes and turned into instruments of war. This calculated crime strips them of their innocence, forcing them into roles as soldiers, slaves, and tools of terror.

LUDCI.eu has spent more than a year researching this atrocity. On March 11, 2024, we published our first article on child soldiering in our e-magazine, The Headline Diplomat. This article was followed by a comprehensive report, Shattered Innocence. Authored by Dr. Vassilia Orfanou, COO of LUDCI.eu, the report was released on April 16, 2024, now available on Amazon. Our findings confirm a disturbing reality: child soldiering is not just a byproduct of war—it is a form of human trafficking.

A Crime Finally Acknowledged

On January 2, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense officially recognized child soldiering as a form of child trafficking, aligning it with the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008. This acknowledgment places the recruitment and exploitation of child soldiers under the same legal scrutiny as forced labor and sexual slavery.

For too long, child soldiering has been seen as an unfortunate consequence of war. But the truth is undeniable: these children are not volunteers; they are victims. They are abducted, drugged, and brutalized, forced into roles ranging from combatants to porters, spies, cooks, and sex slaves.

The infamous Boko Haram abductions in Nigeria are just one example. The same horror unfolds across South Sudan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, and beyond.

A Lifetime of Trauma

Even those who escape remain trapped by the psychological scars of war. Many are rejected by their communities, haunted by the atrocities they were forced to commit. The road to reintegration is steep, yet support for these programs remains underfunded and overlooked.

The Media’s Role: Silence is Not an Option

The world cannot afford to turn a blind eye. The media plays a crucial role in keeping child soldiering in the global conscience. This issue is too often buried under headlines about geopolitics and military strategy. Without sustained media pressure, governments and institutions remain comfortable in their inaction.

The Time for Action is Now

Despite 173 nations ratifying the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC -check countries here), child soldiers still exist in over a dozen countries. The issue is not a lack of laws—it is a lack of enforcement. The Protocol was adopted by the General Assembly on 25 May 2000 and entered into force on 12 February 2002.

The Optional protocol is a commitment that:

States will not recruit children under the age of 18 to send them to the battlefield.
States will not conscript soldiers below the age of 18.
States should take all possible measures to prevent such recruitment –including legislation to prohibit and criminalize the recruitment of children under 18 and involve them in hostilities.
States will demobilize anyone under 18 conscripted or used in hostilities and will provide physical, psychological recovery services and help their social reintegration.
Armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a country should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities anyone under 18.

📢 We demand immediate action:
✅ Governments must criminalize and prosecute those who recruit and exploit child soldiers.
✅ International organizations must increase funding for reintegration programs.
✅ The media must maintain pressure to keep this issue at the forefront.

Final Words: A Call to Conscience

Child soldiering is not just a tragedy—it is a crime against humanity. Every child forced into war represents a failure of the international community. Sympathy is not enough. We need action. Check out our latest video here.

“A child’s place is in a school, not on a battlefield. If we do not fight for them, we are complicit in their fate. The world must stop looking away—every stolen childhood is a war crime that demands justice today.”
— Dr. Vassilia Orfanou, COO, LUDCI.eu

📢 For media inquiries, interviews, or more information, contact:
📧 vassilia@ludci.eu
🌍 www.ludci.eu