Terrorist and violent extremist groups across the ideological spectrum target, recruit and exploit children at an escalating rate.

 

Over the past two decades, the recruitment and use of children by UN-designated terrorist organizations increased between 22% to 946.3%. As of today, 1.265 billion children - 54% of all children globally - live in one of 39 countries where one or more conflict actors were reported to have recruited children to partake in violent insurgencies and terrorism-related activities, and 71% of the world youth are exposed to radicalization risks online by Islamist and right-wing extremist groups alike.

 

A serious form of violence against children, child involvement with terrorist and violent extremist actors is a major contributor to the extreme violence that we see in the world and brings severe implications for children, communities and international peace and security. It does not only serve the satisfaction of short term military purposes, but it aims at ensuring the very endurance of extremist ideologies and the perpetuation of conflict and instability, intergenerationally.

 

The CRTG Working Group recognizes that child exploitation in terrorism is an evolutionary outcome of terrorist tactics and strategy and one of the core elements enabling the long-term survival of terrorist organizations, spreading violent ideology, and fueling conflict. We acknowledge that addressing the complex and evolving nature of the terrorist threat, requires our own adaptation and therefore, we are intentionally forward-looking in our understanding of children ́s role - as a factor that can exacerbate existing challenges, but also one that can, when effective intervention measures are implemented and sustained, provide new solutions to threats that we confront and help prevent new ones from materializing.