Yemen’s Houthi rebels have agreed to rid their ranks of child soldiers, who have fought by the thousands during the country’s seven years of civil war, the United Nations said Monday. The Houthis signed what the U.N. described as an “action plan” to end and prevent recruiting or using children in armed conflict, killing or maiming children and attacking schools and hospitals. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rebels committed to identifying children in their ranks and releasing them within six months. Representatives from the U.N.’s children’s agency posed with Houthi officials for the media at a ceremony to mark the agreement in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The Houthis called it a plan to protect children.
Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis seized Sanaa and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, entered the war in early 2015 intended to restore the government to power. War monitors estimate the conflict has killed over 14,500 civilians and 150,000 people when combatants are included. The fighting created from this war has been given the title as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than 10,200 children have been killed or maimed in the war, the U.N. says. It’s unclear how many may have been combatants.
In order to make policy recommendations, it may be critical to examine Islamic law and jurisprudence in regards to child soldiers to better access frameworks that individuals in Yemen may be more inclined to adapt. It is imperative to abide by the frameworks of those who are most affected by the conflict. Current trends in international law have attempted to raise the minimum age of child soldiers globally. In Yemen, marital law might tell a different story. There is no formal age of consent in Yemen, and many cases have surfaced regarding child marriages as young as 8 years old. Theory and practice tell vastly different stories, making it very difficult to set a clear definition of what adulthood really is. The recruitment of children as soldiers in Yemen goes against Islamic principles contained in the hadith and against Western norms of international law. As the Saudi-led coalition gains momentum and continues to pay children in Darfur to participate in war crimes, the world must attempt to restrain Saudi Arabia through means of coercion, whether that be economic sanctions or hardline military force. States must look at empirical examples and attempts at peace negotiations.