An international treaty banning the use of children as soldiers entered into force on February 12, 2002.

Known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, it states that no one under 18 shall be compulsorily drafted into military service. It also requires that governments raise the minimum age for voluntary enlistment in military institutions to 16.

The Protocol was adopted in May 2000, but only went into force after the first 10 countries ratified it.

An estimated half million minors are believed to have been forced into military service by governmental, paramilitary, and other sorts of armed forces in 85 countries around the world, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.