-3Definition and Age of the Child (Article 2) 82. Article 2 of the Charter requires the State to take measures to ensure that the law recognizes that a child means every human being under the age of 18 years. Prior to the enactment of the Child Rights Act, 2007, various laws governed the age of children. The laws contradicted one another in terms of the stipulated age of childhood and many were out of alignment with the provisions of the ACRWC in terms of the age of the child as well as the protection afforded children under certain ages against abuse and exploitation. The GoSL has enacted a number of laws which have aligned the national laws governing the age of the child and protection afforded to younger children with the provisions of the ACRWC, the CRC and related instruments. 3.1 The definition of a child 83. The Child Rights Act brings the national law of Sierra Leone into alignment with the ACRWC and repeals or amends the contradictory preceding laws which specified different ages for the child. The act defines a child “a person below the age of eighteen”. 3.2 Minimum age for recruitment into armed forces 84. The GoSL ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC) in 2002. Pursuant thereto it adopted the Recruitment Policy of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces in 2004 and the Armed Forces Recruitment Act in 2006 which increased the age of recruitment into the armed forces from 17 and half years to 18 years. 85. In addition, the Children’s Policy (2006) and the Child Rights Act (2007) unconditionally protect children from armed conflict. The act criminalizes the recruitment or enlistment of any child for the purposes of engaging him/her in armed conflict within Sierra Leone. 30  Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone Initial Report on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 2002-2014