US EditionAmnesty International Call Iran's Child Recruitment a War Crime
Amnesty says the program sends minors to checkpoints and patrols as Iran faces intensified strikes on IRGC and Basij sites.
- On March 26, 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a recruitment drive called 'For Iran,' lowering the minimum volunteer age to 12. Cultural official Rahim Nadali stated the program directs recruits to Basij mosques for patrols and checkpoint duties.
- Personnel shortages at checkpoints prompted this shift, echoing the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War when authorities sent over 550,000 children to support roles. The current recruitment reflects a recurring Iranian strategy.
- Evidence of lethal risks emerged on March 11, 2026, when 11-year-old Alireza Jafari was killed at a Tehran checkpoint. His mother told the Hamshahri newspaper a 'shortage of personnel' led her husband to take their son to assist Basij patrols.
- Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the initiative as a war crime. Bill Van Esveld, HRW associate children's rights director, said 'there is no excuse for a military recruitment drive that targets children to sign up, much less 12-year-olds.'
- Deploying untrained minors in security roles risks escalating violence and endangering civilians. Pegah Banihashemi, University of Chicago Law School expert in constitutional law and human rights, stated recruitment 'introduces broader risks to society' due to limited command structures.
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75 Articles
DECRYPTAGE - The Iranian authorities have announced the launch of an official plan to recruit children of "twelve years of age and over" to join the ranks of volunteer fighters, a phenomenon far from new in the Islamic Republic.
Iran: Recruitment of child soldiers as young as 12 amounts to a war crime
Iranian authorities are trampling upon children’s rights and committing a grave violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime by recruiting and mobilizing children as young as 12 into a military campaign led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Amnesty International said today. On 26 March 2026, a deputy of the IRGC Mohammad Rasoul Allah Corps of Greater Tehran, Rahim Nadali, announced that a recruitment […]
Witnesses told the BBC that they had seen children, some including soldiers, acting in security functions in capital and other cities.
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