Thoughts on Participation of Children and Adolescents in Armed Conflict in Peru

Abstract

The conscription or enlistment of children and adolescents and their participation in hostilities Isa major human rights violations thereof. Therefore, we have taken a number of international instruments to prohibit such behavior, being especially relevant the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Peru is a party to this instrument since2002, from which it derives a set of commitments to be assumed by the Peruvian state.
In this orientation the Peruvian government has adopted series of measures in the framework of the provisions of the Optional Protocol, Law No. 29248 approving the Military Service Act and its regulations, which prohibit the recruitment of children under 18 years. Has also been established in the Military Police Criminal Code, approved by Legislative Decree 1094, as a crime against persons protected by international humanitarian law the use under 18 in hostilities (article 88).