10 The Statute of the International Criminal Court has included as a war crime the conscription, enlistment or use children under the age of 15 to participate in hostilities, both in international and non-international armed conflicts. International humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) prohibit, in particular, their recruitment and use in hostilities, and also include provisions on their access to basic needs. Through the development of different mechanisms and legal instruments, the international community has recognized the importance of protecting children in armed conflict. ANSAs are responsible for many of these grave violations. They are also denied access to health care and education. 8 Children are being killed and maimed, abducted and raped, recruited and used in hostilities. 6ДЄlthough these examples show some promising steps towards the protection of children in armed conflict, millions of children around the world are still affected, 7 either directly or indirectly, including an estimate of more than 300,000 child soldiers. 5 In the same vein, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was delisted from the UN Secretary-General's 2017 annual report on the recruitment and use of children following the completion of its action plan with the UN, which resulted in the disengagement of 1,869 children from its ranks. 4 In Colombia, between September 2016 and August 2017, 135 children were formally released from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of ColombiaВ вЂ“В People's Army in the context of the commitment the group had undertaken with the government as part of the peace process. 3 Also in 2017, more than forty children left ANSAs fighting in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after engaging with Geneva Call. 2 Similarly, the Coordination des Mouvements de l'Azawad (Coordination of Azawad Movements) in Mali and the Civilian Joint Task Force in Nigeria signed action plans with the United Nations (UN) to release children from their ranks and to prevent future recruitment. In 2017, two armed non-State actors (ANSAs) 1 from the Central African Republic issued internal command orders prohibiting the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.

This article reviews some of the lessons learned from Geneva Call's experience when engaging ANSAs towards their compliance with child protection norms. When addressing the prohibition of recruiting and using children in hostilities, the reasons behind these variations have remained insufficiently explored. While certain groups have, at a given moment, breached some of their international obligations, others have shown some degree of commitment to respecting children's safeguards. Certain practical cases, however, show that ANSAsвЂ™ behaviours may vary throughout armed conflicts. This can be linked to several circumstances, such as their lack of knowledge of the law, the absence of an incentive to abide by the applicable rules, their fragmented structure and their lack of capacity to implement the applicable framework. Despite the existence of a comprehensive international legal framework protecting children in armed conflict, ensuring its respect by armed non-State actors (ANSAs) still remains an important challenge.

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