Myanmar: Underage Recruits Sent to Military Training, Front Lines

This is a shortened version of a story first published on the Human Rights Watch website on 20th June 2025.

The Myanmar military’s recruitment and use of child soldiers has surged since the 2021 coup, including a significant number recruited after the junta enacted a conscription law in February 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 19, 2025, the United Nations Secretary-General reported that the UN had verified 2,138 grave violations against children in armed conflict in Myanmar in 2024, including recruitment of children, with about 1,200 additional violations pending verification.

Since the coup, the UN has verified over 1,800 cases of recruitment of children as young as 12 by junta and affiliated forces, though noting that “cases are likely significantly underreported due to monitoring challenges and the fear of retaliation.” Local civil society groups and opposition activists told Human Rights Watch that child soldiers have been found among captured combatants and military defectors. Military recruiters have abducted or opportunistically recruited children when unaccompanied, displaced, or working, and then concealed or failed to verify their ages. The military has sent children to the front lines and used them as guides, porters, and at times as human shields.

Read the full story on Human Rights Watch website here.