Child Soldiers Global Report 2004 - Germany

Federal Republic of Germany

Covers the period from April 2001 to March 2004.

Population: 82.4 million (15.4 million under 18)
Government armed forces: 284,500
Compulsory recruitment age: 18
Voluntary recruitment age: 17
Voting age: 18
Optional Protocol: signed 6 September 2000
Other treaties ratified (see glossary): CRC, GC AP I and II, ICC, ILO 138, ILO 182

Germany had yet to ratify the Optional Protocol. The minimum voluntary recruitment age was 17. Three to five hundred former child soldiers from other countries were living as "separated children" in Germany. They had little chance of being granted asylum and were denied protection under the Youth Welfare Act.

Context

Throughout 2001-2003 there were continuing allegations that police officers had ill-treated and used excessive force against detainees. In 2003 a report that officials had countenanced the use of force on a suspect to elicit information from him led to intense public debate about the circumstances in which torture was permissible.¹

Government

National recruitment legislation and practice

The 1949 Basic Law (constitution) states that "Men who have reached the age of 18 may be required to serve in the Armed Forces, the Federal Border Guard or civil defence organization" and guarantees the right to refuse military service on the grounds of conscience.² The legal basis for conscription is the 1956 Military Service Law, which requires all men from the age of 18 to undertake compulsory military service. Recruits are usually called up in the year after they are 18.

Volunteers may join the armed forces in the year after they are 17, with parental permission. In January 2002 the length of basic military service was cut from ten to nine months, and could be completed in stages within a three-year period: training in military skills and knowledge in the first six months, and the remaining three months in two six-week blocks. The option of volunteering to stay on for 23 months was still available.³

According to the Defence Ministry, the number of 17 year olds undergoing basic training in the armed forces was 73 in 2001 and 27 in 2002. No figures were available for 2003. Recruits received no training with weapons until they reached 18 years of age.⁴

International standards

Germany had yet to ratify the Optional Protocol. At the time of its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, the government expressed regret that "under Article 38(2) of the Convention even fifteen year olds may take a part in hostilities as soldiers, because this age limit is incompatible with the consideration of the child's best interest (Article 3 of the Convention)". It declared that it would not "make any use of the possibility afforded by the Convention of fixing this age limit at 15 years".⁵

In its July 2003 report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the government welcomed the Optional Protocol because it represented clear progress over the original provisions of the Convention in specifying 18 as the minimum age for direct participation in fighting.⁶ In January 2004 the Committee acknowledged "[Germany's] support to the 'straight 18' position for the Optional Protocol" and encouraged the government to ratify and implement the protocol. The Committee also welcomed Germany's ratification of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182 in April 2002.⁷

Developments

In recent years there have been several proposals in parliament (Bundestag) to raise the minimum age of recruitment to 18. These included a motion by the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union/Christlich Soziale Union) faction on 27 May 2003 which proposed ratification of the Optional Protocol.⁸ Reporting on the motion, the press department of parliament said the Optional Protocol had still not been ratified because of "the conflict of interest between two government ministries. While the justice ministry insists on full adult rights and a minimum age of 18, the defence ministry wants [the minimum age] to remain at 17 to reach young men who would otherwise go into border control".⁹

Three to five hundred former child soldiers from other countries, mostly separated from their families, were reported to be living in Germany. The Federal Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees (Bundesamt für die Anerkennung von ausländischen Flüchtlingen) stated that "the recruitment of children as soldiers is not accepted as a child specific persecution in the asylum procedure".¹⁰ In January 2004 the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern that "refugee children between 16 and 18 years do not benefit from the rights included in the Youth Welfare Act".¹¹

1 Amnesty International Reports 2002, 2003 and 2004, http://web.amnesty.org/library/engindex.

2 Basic Law, Article 12a (1 and 2), http://www.bundestag.de (information courier).

3 Wehrpflichtgesetz (Military Service Law) BGBl. 1995 1 1756, 1757. Article 5, 1a, http://www.deutsches-wehrrecht.de.

4 Correspondence from Defence Ministry press department, 1 April 2004.

5 Declaration on ratification of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6 March 1992, http://www.ohchr.org.

6 Second periodic report to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/83/Add.7, 24 July 2003, http://www.ohchr.org.

7 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations: Germany, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.226, 26 February 2004.

8 CDU/CSU Antrag, 15/1016 (parliamentary motion).

9 Press release no. 114, 27 May 2003, http://www.bundestag.de/bic/presse/index.html.

10 Quaker UN Office, Former child soldiers as refugees in Germany, project study by Michaela Ludwig for Terre des Hommes Germany, 2004, http://www.quno.ch.

11 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations, op. cit.