The Problem of Responsibility of Child Soldiers for War Crimes

Abstract

According to the UN Secretary-General Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, in 2020 more than 8 thousand boys and girls have been drawn in the frontline fighting. Despite the numerous provisions of international law regarding the legitimizing of children`s usage by the State armed forces and organized groups, in the international law sphere there is no common approach among representatives of legal doctrine whether child soldiers should be prosecuted for their actions. This Master thesis focuses on the problem of responsibility of child soldiers for war crimes. Consequently, this research comes to the conclusion that the issue of child soldiers` responsibility for war crimes hasn`t reached unified approach at the international legal level. Accordingly, appropriate legal mechanisms for child soldiers` accountability have to be established where certain mitigating factors would be taken into consideration while amnesty should be perceived as inadmissible.