Statistics
- As of mid-2004, up to 100,000 children—some as young as nine—were actively involved in armed conflict in Africa.*
- 80 per cent of children aged 8 to 13 in Sierra Leone had suffered the death of a parent, sibling or close relative; 74 per cent had seen somebody being killed or injured with machetes; 68 per cent had seen somebody being burned to death or tortured; and nearly 10 per cent of girls had been gang-raped.***
- 66 per cent of children in Angola had seen people murdered, and 67 per cent had seen people beaten or tortured. **
- 55 per cent of children in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina had been shot at, and 66 per cent had been in a situation where they expected to die. **
- The United States military has a long standing policy of allowing 17 year olds to enter the military with parental consent.
- The United States is one of only two countries (the other being Somalia) that has yet to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in which a child is defined as anyone under the age of 18.
(*The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers; **UNICEF; ***Plan)