Girl soldiers, also referred to as female child soldiers, girls in fighting forces or girls associated with an armed force or armed group (GAAFAG), have been recruited by armed forces and groups in the majority of conflicts in which child soldiers are used. A wide range of rough estimates of their percentage among child soldiers is reported in literature, but scarcity of high-quality data poses problems for establishing their numbers. Many girl soldiers are abduction victims or forcibly recruited by armed groups and forces, while others join armed groups and forces for a variety of reasons ranging from survival and escape from poverty or domestic violence to ideological. They face high rates of sexual violence, sexual slavery and forced marriage. Although commonly depicted as exclusively used in combat service support and sexual roles, many are trained for and take direct part in hostilities, including in some cases as suicide bombers. While more frequently found in non-governmental groups, they have also been recruited by governmental forces. In comparison to male child soldiers, female child soldiers are less studied, receive less media attention, receive less support during reintegration, have low rates of participation in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs, and face a number of additional health, psychosocial and socio-economic effects.
Definition Article 2.1 of the 2007 Paris Principles defines children associated with an armed force or armed group as:
any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities.
Research Female child soldiers are paid less attention in scholarship and policy than male child soldiers, receive very limited media attention, are at risk of invisibility, and are marginalized both during conflict and in post-conflict rehabilitation and reintegration strategies. They have low rates of participation in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs, especially so in African conflicts, and as a result data and statistics derived from these programs face a similar under-representation of girl soldiers. In general, there is a scarcity of high-quality data, and most of the research that has been published on girl soldiers is qualitative rather than quantitative.
History of research Scholarship from the 1980s and 1990s on child soldiers focused primarily on the experiences and needs of boy soldiers, with minimal if any attention paid to girl soldiers. Research from the era on women and girls associated with armed groups and forces focused primarily or exclusively on their role as victims in armed conflict, failed to recognize them as active participants and combatants in conflict, and accorded them little to no agency. In research since, there has been more attention towards the existence of girl soldiers and the varied roles and experiences of girls and women, including recognition of being both victims and actors in conflict. There is a growing awareness that recognition of their agency, although often limited by circumstance, is important for reintegration. However, the majority of attention on girls and women associated with armed forced and groups remains on their position as victims. Although scholarship on girl soldiers increased since the start of the century, it has remained limited. In their 2002 article on girl soldiers, Dyan Mazurana et al stated that "for the most part, it is not possible to draw on academic sources to attain [information on the presence of girls in armed groups or forces around the world] because to date there has been little systematic documentation or analysis of the use of girls." In 2008, Carolyn R. Spellings noted in a review of the research on girl soldier experiences that "it is apparent just how limited the study of female child soldier experience is [...] Indeed there has been no research on girl soldiers in most of the countries in which they are known to participate in political conflicts." Roos Haer and Tobias Böhmelt stated in 2018 that "girl soldiers have largely been neglected so far."
Data and statistics Girl soldiers are present in most conflicts where child soldiers are used. Between 1990 and 2003, girl soldiers are known to have been present in conflicts in 55 countries, and serving as active participants in 38. In their 2018 Girl Child Soldier Dataset (G-CSDS), Haer and Böhmelt state that, of rebel organizations using child soldiers between 1989 and 2013, 63% used girl soldiers. They also noted that as a result of several potentially-biasing factors, an absence of reports indicating the presence of girl soldiers "may not necessarily mean that an armed group did not use girls" and that therefore, "[the dataset] may actually underestimate the presence of girl soldiers in rebel groups". Rough estimates of the number of girl soldiers as being between one-tenth and one-third, 6–50%, or up to 40% of all child soldiers have been given. It is, however, often unclear how these estimates were arrived at, and due to a lack of high-quality data, it is impossible to reliably calculate the number of girl soldiers worldwide. Numbers derived from participation lists of DDR programs were described by Leena Vastapuu as misleading as a result of known low participation rates of female soldiers.
During conflict
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