Switzerland
Practice Relating to Rule 135. Children
Section E. Rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers
Switzerland’s ABC of International Humanitarian Law (2009) states:
Child soldiers
…
The Optional Protocol of 2000 to the [1989] UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for measures to ensure the reintegration in society of children who have served as combatants.
In 2011, in a statement during an interactive dialogue with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict at the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly, the permanent representative of Switzerland stated: “It is necessary to further examine the question of cross-border cooperation in order to improve the coordination and implementation of the monitoring and reporting mechanisms to reintegrate former child soldiers in the society in their country of origin.”
In 2012, in its combined second, third and fourth periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Switzerland stated: “Switzerland attaches particular importance to … demobilizing and reintegrating child soldiers.”
In 2013, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs issued the “Strategy on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts”, which states that Switzerland “supports projects pertaining to prevention of recruitment of children by parties to a conflict and reintegration of those who have been demobilized”.