A Burmese child soldiers awaits a train with his unit. © Nic Dunlop

Throughout Burma (Myanmar), children as young as eleven are being forcibly recruited into Burma's national army, the largest user of child soldiers in the world. Without their parents' knowledge or consent, they are sent to military training camps where they are routinely beaten, and brutally punished if they try to escape. Once deployed, they may be forced to fight and/or carry out human rights abuses against civilians, including other children.

Burma's armed opposition groups also recruit children. Some groups accept children who volunteer in order to avenge past abuses by Burmese forces against their family or community or because they have been displaced from their homes by fighting. Others forcibly conscript children. Although some groups claim to keep children in non-combat roles, many participate in combat, sometimes with little or no training.

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