military recruitment

Tue

Mar

2016

Young and Desperate? I want you to fight my wars!

New translation available

Submitted by hannah

“Don’t join the Army.”

“Don’t do what? Don’t leave here? Don’t learn new skills?”

These are the words from the new recruitment advert from the British Army to recruit new members to its ranks. It depicts a...

Wed

Dec

Myanmar Regime Makes Military Training Compulsory for Soldiers' Children

Submitted by antimili-youth on Wed, 22/12/2021 - 13:51

Myanmar’s military has made it mandatory for children of its personnel to undergo military training as it seeks to prepare reserve forces, despite such training being against both Myanmar and international law.

“Among the trainees are teenage children. The military has made the training mandatory for all children old enough to carry a gun. Even my child had to attend,” said a sergeant from a regional command who has now defected.

However, Myanmar’s Child Rights Law expressly prohibits providing military training to children with the intention of using them to serve in the military, as does the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, said one child rights activist.

Read the full story published on 07 December 2021 by The Irrawaddy here.

Wed

Dec

Syrian Kurds Demand End to Child Recruitment

Submitted by antimili-youth on Wed, 01/12/2021 - 01:06

Dozens of Kurdish parents and activists protested outside the United Nations offices in Qamishli, Syria, on Sunday against the recruitment of children by local military groups.

The demonstration took place after several teenage girls were reportedly recruited by groups affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military organization that has been a key U.S. ally in the battle against Islamic State.

In June 2019, the SDF signed a joint action plan with the U.N. to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 in areas under its control. But the U.N. said since then, at least 160 cases have been documented.

Khaled Jabir, co-chairman of the child protection unit at the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria, confirmed that his office recently received several complaints about child recruitment.

Thu

Jul

Underage 'martyrs': Recruiting child soldiers in Yemen

Submitted by antimili-youth on Thu, 15/07/2021 - 18:20

In Yemen, families send their children to so-called summer camps. There, adolescents are given combat training and taught why they should fight for God. Both government forces and Houthi rebels use child soldiers.

The recruitment of child soldiers is without a doubt one of the most upsetting of the many human rights violations that have been documented during Yemen's civil war.

In their annual report on Children and Armed Conflict, published in May this year, United Nations researchers counted 211 cases of children being recruited to fight in Yemen in 2020. Of these, 134 were boys and 29 were girls recruited by the Houthis.

Sun

Jan

The MAGA Face of JROTC

Submitted by gdghirardi on Sun, 31/01/2021 - 02:23

January 18 2021 / Gary Ghirardi / Op-ed / NNOMY - With the violence witnessed in the beginning of 2021 at the nation's capital, we have been forced to acknowledge the culture war that exists in the United States in full expression. We also witnessed in the subtext of that event, and the emerging crisis that will follow it, the government's promise of increasing securitization as a reaction to it. That process did not start at the "surge on the capital" but has been in a steady progression of growth for many years. This latest event only provides an additional justification for the need to increase the militarization of our "democracy."

Tue

Aug

The US Military Is Using Online Gaming to Recruit Teens

Submitted by gdghirardi on Tue, 11/08/2020 - 22:25

Gamers with the Army, Navy, and Air Force are spending hours on Twitch with children as young as 13.

Jordan Uhl -

Have a nice time getting banned, my dude,” Army recruiter and gamer Joshua “Strotnium” David told me right before he booted me from the US Army’s Twitch channel. I had just reminded viewers of the United States’ history of atrocities around the globe, and helpfully provided a link to the Wikipedia page for US war crimes.
Was I undiplomatic? Sure. But if the military is going to use one of the world’s most popular platforms to recruit kids, then it shouldn’t be able to do so without some pushback. Right now, with the support of Twitch, gamers with the US military are spending hours with children as young as 13, trying to convince them to enlist.

Sun

Jun

Tough Times for Military Recruiting

Submitted by gdghirardi on Sun, 14/06/2020 - 20:07

How COVID-19 is impacting the Delayed Entry Program and threatening the health of recruits.

By Pat Elder / National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, NNOMY - June 8, 2020

COVID-19 has profoundly impacted the way the military finds new soldiers. The recruiting command was caught unprepared to face the pandemic and is facing a challenging new reality.

Thu

Nov

New Publication: Counter-Recruitment Campaigns Internationally

WRI's new booklet, Countering Military Recruitment: Learning the lessons of counter-recruitment campaigns internationally, is out now. The booklet includes examples of campaigning against youth militarisation across different countries with the contribution of grassroot activists.

You can order a paperback version here.

Thu

Nov

New Publication: Counter-Recruitment Campaigns Internationally

Submitted by jenh on Thu, 07/11/2019 - 15:53

You can order a paperback version here.

‘Countering the militarisation of youth’ is one of WRI’s major areas of work. In making this booklet, we set out to investigate one part of this activism: campaigns to counter the recruitment of young people by armed forces and armed groups.

Fri

Nov

China is recruiting its brightest high schoolers to build AI bots for the military

Submitted by fcardozo on Fri, 09/11/2018 - 14:55

A group of some of China's smartest students have been recruited straight from high school to begin training as the world's youngest AI weapons scientists.

The 27 boys and four girls, all aged 18 and under, were selected for the four-year "experimental programme for intelligent weapons systems" at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) from more than 5,000 candidates, the school said on its website.

The BIT is one of the country's top weapons research institutes, and the launch of the new programme is evidence of the weight it places on the development of AI technology for military use.

China is in competition with the United States and other nations in the race to develop deadly AI applications - from nuclear submarines with self-learning chips to microscopic robots that can crawl into human blood vessels.

Mon

Jul

Patriotic Youth Army Takes Russian Kids Back to the Future

Submitted by NNOMY on Mon, 02/07/2018 - 18:24

KUBINKA, Russia — Often in Russia these days, what is old is new again or, to be more specific, what is Soviet is new again.

The Youth Army, open to both boys and girls, is a militarized throwback to the Young Pioneers of the Soviet era. Meant to instill a sense of Communist zeal, the Pioneers are mostly remembered for their summer camps.

The Youth Army jettisoned the Communist bits, emerging as a kind of hybrid version of the scouts and a reserve officers training program, with an emphasis on patriotism and national service.

The trademark red endured.

If the Pioneers knotted red scarves around their necks, members of the Youth Army sport red berets bearing a pin of the organization’s logo — the red star of the Russian Army superimposed on an eagle’s head.