Argentina
Practice Relating to Rule 137. Participation of Child Soldiers in Hostilities
Argentina’s Law of War Manual (1989) provides: “The belligerent parties shall take all measures to ensure that children under the age of 15 do not participate directly in hostilities.”
With respect to non-international armed conflicts in particular, the manual states: “Children under the age of 15 shall not … be authorized to participate in hostilities.”
Upon ratification of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Argentina stated that “it would have liked the Convention categorically to prohibit the use of children in armed conflicts”.