(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 4.3 139 Children and armed conflict The impact of armed conflict on children is staggering.72 Aware of the significant importance of the subject of children and armed conflict, the African Children’s Committee dedicated its first continental report to this topic.73 In the last decades, the use of child soldiers by both government forces and armed groups in African countries has been witnessed and condemned by the international community.74 Among the reasons that required the adoption of the African Children’s Rights Charter was the use of children as soldiers and the need to institute a minimum age of 18 for military service.75 Under article 22(2), the African Children’s Rights Charter prohibits the recruitment and use of children under 18 in both international and internal armed conflicts and requires states to ‘take all necessary measures to ensure that no child shall take a direct part in hostilities and refrain in particular, from recruiting any child.’ Unlike the CRC and the Optional Protocol, it adopts a ‘straight 18’ position. Moreover, the rule on the protection and care of children who are affected in armed conflict also applies ‘to children in situations of internal armed conflicts, tension and strife’76 has its own appeal. By adhering to 18, it is not implied that someone by some magic wand on the stroke of a pen turns into a fully competent, mature, wise and autonomous individual upon attaining a certain arbitrarily fixed age.77 Rather, it is necessary for international law to grant comprehensive protection for all persons under the age of 18 years who are deemed to be in need of protection. Under the African Children’s Rights Charter, the obligation that a State undertakes is ‘to take all necessary measures to ensure’ that no child takes a direct part in 72 See UNICEF 25 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Is the World a Better Place for Children? (2014) 9 which highlights that ‘[a]lthough the number of armed conflicts around the world has decreased from a peak of 52 in 1991 to 33 in 2013,5 the new century has already seen major conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, among other countries. In a world in which more than 1.5 billion people are experiencing political and social instability or large-scale criminal violence, there is no climate of peace and certainly no peace dividend’. 73 African Children’s Rights Committee ‘Continental Study on the impact of conflict and crises on children in Africa’ (2016) available at http://www.acerwc.org/download/ continental-study-on-armed-conflict-and-crises-on-children/?wpdmdl=10007 (accessed 10 October 2017). 74 For example, the UN Security Council (UNSC) passed a number of resolutions condemning the use of child soldiers. These include resolution no. 1261 (1999), 1314 (2000) and 1539 (2004). 75 L Muthoga ‘Introducing the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (paper delivered at the International Conference on the Rights of the Child, Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, 1992) as cited in F Viljoen ‘The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’ (2000) in CJ Davel (ed) Introduction to child law in South Africa 219. 76 Article 22(3) of the African Children’s Rights Charter. 77 M Gose The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: an assessment of the legal value of its substantive provisions by means of a direct comparison to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (2002) 28.