The conception of children being employed into state and protester armies and combating in warfare is one that repels most inhabitants. Though, the use of child militia is still taking place in Burma, there are no signs that this practice will end in the future.
Children's human rights are desecrated on an immense point, whether they are forcefully or voluntarily recruited in a military. However, regardless of the general responsiveness of this practice, which has been acknowledged for years by the human rights organizations for example Human Rights Watch, the international community has been somewhat unvoiced and motionless on the subject.
According to data collected by the Human Rights Watch, 35 to 45 percent of recruits in the state army are children i.e. 70,000 or more than Burma’s estimation out of 3,50,000 soldiers.
Human Rights Watch documented cases of Burmese army recruiters. According to it, recruiters lured the boys with promises of job, status, clothing, free education and money, or they threatened them with arrest for loafing or not having an identity card and presented military services as an option. In some cases, the young boys are compelled, frightened and even assaulted for volunteering in the army.
A 14 years old, Toe Kyi, was released from Burmese prison after the campaigning of Amnesty International to free him. According to Toe Kyi, children are easier to control in the army as he was recruited in the rebel army in jungles of Burma, to fight against a military regime. He also said that a little pistol was given to him instead of a gun as he was hardly able to hold it.
Human Rights Watch has published the reports for years saying that children, some of them as young as eleven, were vigorously recruited, cruelly treated throughout training, and made to participate in warfare. They are also used to commit human rights violence against civilians and other child recruits. While the UN Security Council has affirmed on several events that it will take actions against Burma particularly targeting the military, no action has yet been taken.