An estimated 250,000 children are exploited as child soldiers each day around the world. Boys and girls are often forcibly recruited by both government armed forces and armed groups and made to serve as combatants, porters, spies, and sex slaves. The document calls on restricting US military assistance to governments involved in child soldiering and expanding efforts to help remove and rehabilitate child soldiers globally. It provides examples of countries where child soldiers have been active, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, and Sri Lanka.

1. ©APGraphicsBank

2. An estimated 250,000 child soldiers are exploited each day in armed conflict around the world. Boy soldiers fighting in the oil fields of southern Sudan. © Reuters

3. Sudan, © SOS Children's’ Villages -USA Boys and girls are recruited, often forcibly, into both government armed forces and armed groups. They can serve as combatants, porters, spies, human mine detectors, and sex slaves.

4. restrict US military assistance to governments that are implicated in the recruitment or use of children for their own armed forces or supported armed groups; urge the United States to expand its efforts to help remove and rehabilitate children from armed forces and groups around the world; and, encourage the United States to work with the international community to bring to justice armed oppositional groups that have kidnapped children for use as soldiers.

6. Cote D’Ivoire Democratic Republic of Congo Burundi Chad Sudan Uganda Sri Lanka Burma (Myanmar) Colombia Areas where child soldiers were active during 2006 Governments that received US military assistance during 2006 Source: US Department of State

7. These girls were abducted by the LRA. Reports indicate that many released LRA abductees have been subsequently recruited into the Local Defense Units . © Sven Torfinn/IRIN Source: US Department of State

8. These boys have been displaced due to the violence of the conflict between the Tamil Tigers and government forces. Source: US Department of State © Amnesty International

9. This child soldier, 14, is from the Autodefensas Unidas De Colombia (United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia) or AUC- a government supported militia in Columbia. © Marcelo Salinas.

10. Young militia fighters, DRC, 2006. © Tiggy Ridley/IRIN Child soldiers have fought with armed groups on all sides of this conflict. Recent reports indicate that child combatants have been forced by the government army to recruit other children at gunpoint. Source: US Department of State

12. Dieudonné, 17, from DRC, fought with a Mayi-Mayi militia starting when he was 10. [boy not pictured] -AI report, DRC: Children at war, creating hope for the future Mayi-Mayi militia boy soldiers in DRC © Amnesty International “ Life was tough. I was made to smoke drugs . . . I was beaten regularly... I was part of the commander’s body guard and we went through a lot of fighting.”

13. Liberia © UN and Eric Kanalstein "I was playing football . . . [when] Government soldiers came. . . We were tied and put in a truck. I was taught how to shoot an AK 47. I fired a gun but I am not sure if I hit anyone.” - A 12-year-old boy, R.J., abducted by government forces in Liberia [not pictured]. AI report, Liberia: The Promise of Peace for 21,000 Child Soldiers

14. Child soldiers from the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second largest rebel group, march in Colombia. © Marcelo Salinas “ [The government army] promised me that if I worked with them, they would pay me a million pesos per head for every guerrilla I killed.” Demobilized child soldier who was lured back into the conflict by the army. From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Armed Conflict in Colombia Report : Frontiers: Childhood at the Borderline

16. Jean, 16, [pictured] is a former child soldier. He fought with a rebel faction in the DRC. Government armed forces as well as rebel groups recruit children to fight in the DRC. “ One week later, the military came to fetch me, saying that I was a deserter.” © UNICEF/HQ03-0301/Christine Nesbitt

17. Liberia, © UN and Eric Kanalstein “ One 21-year-old boy came to take me . . .to be his ‘wife’. I was forced to join him to save my life. I didn’t receive any training but I was given a gun to fight . . . my stomach was getting big so I fled to Monrovia. . . I went home and had my baby. “ - B.D., 17 when captured by a LURD, rebel soldier [not pictured] AI Report, Liberia: The promises of peace for 21,000 child soldiers

18. “ The International Criminal Court is dealing with the worst crimes in the world . . . but in the first case we are highlighting child soldiers. Why? Because it is a very serious crime affecting the future of mankind. No future of our kids is forced to be soldiers-killers no future for us.” - Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court UN Photo #UNE2523 by Eskinder Debebe

20. Child soldiers in the DRC burn their uniforms to mark the end of their time in the military. © Amnesty International

21. Mohammad, 18, a former child soldier in Afghanistan. He is participating in the UNICEF-supported demobilization program. © UNICEF/HQ04-0654/Kate Brooks

22. Former Maoists fighters. © Naresh Newar/IRIN, Despite a peace agreement in Nepal that forbids the use of child soldiers by either the government or the rebels, the Maoists have continued large scale recruitment of children. Source: US Department of State

23. - Margaret, 15, [pictured] was abducted by the LRA in Northern Uganda in 2003. She is now undergoing rehabilitation. “ If I get home, I need to pray a lot and go to school.” © UNICEF/HQ04-1159/Roger LeMoyne

24. Sign the Petition to your Senator! Educate others! Host a Screening of Amnesty’s new Film Justice Without Borders (www.aiusa.org/film_signup) For more information see: Amnesty International USA Child Soldiers Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers © Former child soldier in a DRC rehabilitation camp receives Amnesty holiday action postcard

25. This photo exhibit / slideshow may only be used in its current form for Amnesty International campaigning. Permission must be granted to change the content or publish any of the photos or text in any form, including the Internet. If you have any questions or would like assistance in showing the photo exhibit, please email Brigid at [email_address] or 202 544-0200 ext. 528.