Definitions of Child Recruitment and Use in Armed Conflict: Challenges for Early Warning

The recruitment and use of children during armed violence is a serious concern in contemporary conflicts, and early warning systems (EWS) can help prevent, not just ameliorate, the resulting harm to children. Effective EWS need to consider recruitment patterns, children’s experiences, relevant legal and political definitions, and data sources. This paper engages with complexities raised by the interaction of legal, experiential, and social scientific dimensions of the recruitment and use of children through analysing the humanitarian and legal definitions of the recruitment of children in conflicts, datasets on armed conflict, and the issue of large-scale violence by organised criminal groups.