THE Committee on the Prevention of Recruitment of Child Soldiers convened its 2/2025 meeting yesterday, presided over by Union Minister for Defence General Maung Maung Aye.
Speaking at the meeting, the Union minister, who is also chairman of the committee, highlighted the formation of the committee with three objectives: signing of the Plan of Action between the government and Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR) on 27 June 2012, and the ending of collaboration between the committee and CTFMR on 27 December 2014.
He added that the Tatmadaw conducts recruitment in accordance with the approved stipulations of the committee and CTFMR, laws, and regulations, and works together with the concerned ministries for educational programmes. The committee’s meetings are also held regularly, and the decisions made at the meetings are reported to CTFMR.
After that collaboration, 1,152 underage soldiers who were mistakenly recruited were allowed to be withdrawn from Tatmadaw and sent back to their parents between 2012 and 2025.
The People’s Military Services was adopted on 10 February 2024, the eligible people were summoned, and those mistakenly summoned were allowed to return and those who mistakenly summoned the underage people were charged.
Tatmadaw’s senior officers conducted 2,720 talks to prevent the recruitment of underage soldiers from 2021 to August 2025.
The committee members and representatives discussed the progress in preventing children from serving in Tatmadaw and clarified the status of previous decisions and conditions for implementation across relevant sectors.
The Union minister gave proper instructions and concluded the meeting. — MNA/KTZH
