UN representative urges Taliban to end child recruitment and recognize 18 as age of adulthood

Résumé détaillé

Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Pashto article. The United Nations has urged the Taliban to align their definition of a child with the Convention on…

Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Pashto article.

The United Nations has urged the Taliban to align their definition of a child with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, amid growing concerns over the recruitment and use of children by the group in Afghanistan.

The U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Vanessa Frazier, told VOA that the age of adulthood must be set at 18, warning that physical signs of puberty cannot replace the internationally recognized legal definition of a child.

The Taliban leader issued a decree banning the recruitment of children “who do not show physical signs of puberty” into their ranks.

Frazier, however, said that the main problem is how these directives define a child.

“The problem that we have is that the distinguishing element that is used in the edicts of the Taliban is signs of puberty, and not the age of 18, which comes out of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” said Frazier.

The U.N. special representative called on the Taliban to align their definition of a child with the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Afghanistan is a party.

A new U.N. report released in September said that the task force verified the recruitment of 557 boys, some as young as 12 years old, by the Taliban from 2023 to 2025.

The U.S. State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, released in October, said that there was a pattern of recruiting and using children both in combat and support roles, as well as a pattern of sexual slavery through bacha bazi, a practice in which men exploit boys for social and sexual entertainment.

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