Children should be protected before recruitment begins.
Across conflict-affected communities, children face risks that can fundamentally change the course of their lives. Poverty, insecurity, displacement, disrupted education, family separation and limited opportunities can leave children increasingly vulnerable to recruitment and use by armed forces and armed groups.
A new research publication, Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Children: An Analysis of the Barriers to Implementing Select Vancouver Principles in South Sudan and Somalia, examines these challenges and asks an important question: What will it take to prevent children from being recruited in the first place?
The study looks at the implementation of selected Vancouver Principles in South Sudan and Somalia, two countries where children continue to experience the devastating consequences of armed conflict.
South Sudan: Prevention remains urgent
The scale of the challenge in South Sudan remains deeply concerning.
According to the research, 555 grave violations were verified against 383 children in 2025. Of these, 147 children were affected by recruitment and use, more than double the 68 children recorded in 2024.
These figures provide only part of the picture. The research notes that insecurity, restricted humanitarian access, fear and weaknesses in reporting systems mean that many violations may never be formally documented.
For children, recruitment is rarely a simple choice.
It can occur in environments where families are struggling to survive, schools have been disrupted, communities are displaced and children have few safe alternatives.
Christopher Nyamandi, Country Director of Save the Children South Sudan, explains:
“The protection of children from recruitment and use is both a legal obligation and a test of South Sudan’s commitment to building lasting peace.”
The research further highlights that recruitment in South Sudan is connected to poverty, hunger, displacement, family separation, intercommunal violence, cattle raiding, insecurity and limited access to education and livelihoods.
This makes prevention much bigger than simply removing children from armed groups. It means addressing the conditions that make children vulnerable to recruitment in the first place.
“These are not free choices”
Children who participated in the research described the difficult circumstances surrounding recruitment and use.
Christopher Nyamandi, Save the Children Country Director notes:
“These are not free choices. They are decisions made within conditions of profound insecurity and severely limited alternatives.”
For many children, education can provide one of those alternatives.
The research identifies education as a critical protective factor. When children are able to attend school, remain connected to supportive adults and participate in safe community structures, they have greater opportunities to build a future outside armed conflict.
But education alone is not enough.
Children also identified psychosocial support, vocational opportunities, family acceptance, trusted reporting mechanisms and accountability as important elements of effective protection and reintegration.
The voices of children must shape the response
The research is particularly important because it does not only examine policies and institutions. It also listens to children and documents their experiences.
One 17-year-old South Sudanese girl, whose name has been anonymised, described the experience of girls caught up in armed conflict:
“So many girls were abducted with me, so many girls were used as sex slaves, so many of us girls were made to steal food…”
Her testimony highlights another critical dimension of recruitment and use: the experiences of girls are often different from those of boys and can remain hidden.
The research finds that girls may face abduction, forced marriage, sexual violence, domestic servitude and exploitation. After returning to their communities, they can also experience stigma, rejection and isolation.
Boys, meanwhile, are more frequently exposed to combat and military roles, including involvement in community defence and cattle-related violence.
Any effective prevention and reintegration strategy therefore needs to recognise these different experiences and risks.
Somalia: A continuing protection challenge
The situation in Somalia also demonstrates the scale and complexity of the problem.
Between October 2021 and December 2024, 8,493 grave violations were verified against 6,801 children in Somalia.
The research records 2,821 children affected by recruitment and use, while 2,556 children were subjected to abduction. Nearly half of the verified abductions were carried out for the purpose of recruitment by non-state armed groups.
The research identifies several factors contributing to children's vulnerability, including conflict and insecurity, poverty, displacement, educational exclusion, weak governance, inadequate age verification and harmful social and gender norms.
At the same time, the research points to opportunities for strengthening prevention, including improved birth registration and age verification, stronger coordination, community engagement, monitoring and reporting, and greater accountability.
What children are telling us
Across South Sudan and Somalia, children participating in the research were clear about what protection should look like.
They identified:
- Education that remains accessible during crisis;
- Psychosocial support for children affected by conflict;
- Vocational and livelihood opportunities;
- Family and community acceptance after release and reintegration;
- Safe and trusted reporting mechanisms;
- Accountability for those who recruit children; and
- Meaningful participation of children in decisions affecting their lives.
Children also highlighted the importance of child clubs, peer networks and community awareness initiatives.
Their message is clear: children should not only be seen as victims of conflict. They should also be recognised as participants in shaping the solutions that protect them.
From commitments to prevention
Both South Sudan and Somalia have legal, policy and institutional frameworks aimed at protecting children from grave violations. However, the research finds that implementation remains inconsistent.
Neither country has endorsed the Vancouver Principles, and awareness of the Principles remains concentrated largely among specialised institutions and senior officials. At community level, awareness among children and families remains limited.
This creates an important opportunity.
Prevention requires commitments to move beyond policy documents and into the communities where children live.
It requires governments, humanitarian organisations, communities, families, schools, civil society and children themselves to work together to identify risks early and create safe alternatives before recruitment takes place.
As Christopher Nyamandi puts it:
“The children who contributed to this research were clear about what protection means to them. They identified education, psychosocial support, vocational opportunities, family acceptance, trusted reporting arrangements, and accountability for those who recruit children as essential. They also asked to participate in the decisions that affect them.”
A call to act before it is too late
Preventing the recruitment and use of children cannot begin when a child has already been recruited.
It must begin earlier — by keeping children in school, strengthening families and communities, addressing poverty and displacement, creating safe opportunities for young people, strengthening reporting and accountability, and ensuring that children have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting their lives.
The research offers important lessons for South Sudan and Somalia, but its message is broader:
Protection must come before recruitment. Prevention must come before harm. And children must be at the centre of the solutions.
The opportunity now is to translate existing commitments into stronger prevention, stronger accountability and safer futures for every child.
Read the full research publication:
Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Children: An Analysis of the Barriers to Implementing Select Vancouver Principles in South Sudan and Somalia.
Access the publication here: Reports
Download the two:
Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Children: An Analysis of the Barriers to Implementing the Vancouver Principles in South Sudan and Somalia.
Children’s Perspectives Preventing the Recruitment and Use of Children: An Analysis of the Barriers to Implementing the Vancouver Principles in South Sudan and Somalia.
