Open letter from 24 organizations to Minister Pistorius: Stop recruiting underage soldiers

In light of serious violations of children's rights, such as sexual violence, and a massive increase in the number of underage soldiers in the German Armed Forces to over 3,100 in 2025, 18 organizations and 6 umbrella organizations with over 230 member organizations from the fields of human rights, peace, the environment, churches, and trade unions, with a combined membership of over half a million, are calling on Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius to immediately raise the recruitment age for soldiers in the German Armed Forces to 18 through an administrative order and to end advertising for the German Armed Forces to minors.

Dear Federal Minister Pistorius, We are 18 national and international organizations and 6 umbrella organizations with over 230 member organizations from the fields of human rights, peace, the environment, churches, and trade unions, representing a total of over half a million members. We are very concerned about the ever-increasing recruitment of underage soldiers into the German Armed Forces, the serious violations of children's rights there, and the disregard for the international 18-year-old standard (Straight 18) in recruitment.

The current scandal in the German Armed Forces involving sexual violence, right-wing extremism, excessive alcohol consumption, and drug abuse, with over 55 soldiers accused in a paratrooper barracks in Zweibruecken, shows, as many similar scandals before it have done, that the army is no place for minors, not even in training. Neither safety nor children's rights and youth protection can be guaranteed there. According to your ministry, at least one underage female soldier was among the victims in Zweibruecken. It is also known that in 2023, two paratroopers from this barracks raped an 18-year-old female soldier and were convicted in court, as were two Bundeswehr soldiers in Cologne in the same year for raping an 18-year-old in a barracks.

Numerous data published by your ministry[1] also show that serious violations of children's rights occur every year among underage soldiers in the German Armed Forces, including sexual violence, accidents, and mental illness. These are serious violations of the obligations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labor, which strictly prohibits hazardous work for all persons under the age of 18--including service as a soldier, even during training.

As the minister responsible, you have so far continued to recruit minors as soldiers despite the serious incidents and problems mentioned above, which have been known for a long time and recur every year , even though expert opinions from various legal scholars such as Dr. Hendrik Cremer and Prof. Michael Krennerich[2] have proven that this practice is illegal because it violates national laws such as the Youth Protection Act and the Youth Employment Protection Act, as well as international law obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its additional protocols.

In 2025, more underage soldiers than ever before were recruited into the German Armed Forces, over 3,100, a sharp increase of over 42 percent compared to the previous year. They receive the same military training in the use of weapons as adults and are housed together with them in barracks and during exercises, despite the known serious risks and abuses.

We urge you to stop recruiting minors as soldiers in the German Armed Forces in the future and to comply with the international 18-year-old standard (Straight 18) - as more than 150 countries worldwide already do, including the vast majority of NATO and EU member states. This and a ban on Bundeswehr advertising to minors is demanded by the SPD parliamentary group in a position paper, as well as by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and members of the UN Human Rights Council such as Sweden (UPR recommendation to Germany). As Minister of Defense, you can implement both demands immediately through an administrative order.

We urge you to take action and finally put an end to the serious violations of children's rights involving underage soldiers! We would appreciate a prompt response and the opportunity to discuss with you the important issue of child protection in the Bundeswehr and our urgent demands.

Sincerely,

Maike Finnern, Chair of the Education and Science Union (GEW)

Joshua Hofert, Spokesperson for the Board of Terre des Hommes Deutschland e.V.

Birgit Wehner and Odilo Metzler, Federal Chairpersons, pax christi German Section e.V.

Kristian Golla Managing Director, Peace Cooperative Network

Juergen Graesslin Federal Spokesperson, DFG-VK

Dr. Christoph Dembowski, Board Member, IPPNW - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War/Physicians in Social Responsibility e.V.

Annegret Krueger Chairwoman, Women's Network for Peace e. V.

Dieter Mueller-Noehring and Wilfried Gaum, First and Second Chairpersons of Quaeker-Hilfe e.V.

Ralf Willinger and Frank Mischo, Spokespersons for the German Coalition To Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

Guenter Burkhardt, on behalf of the Human Rights Forum, Coordination Group and spokesperson for the Working Group Peace

Bianka Pergande and Sven Stumpf, Spokespersons for the National Coalition Germany - Network for the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Renate Wanie, Co-Chair of the Association for Social Defense

Jan Gildemeister, Managing Director of the Action Committee Service for Peace

Martin Kaiser. Executive Director of Greenpeace

Philipp Frisch, Director, Human Rights Watch Germany

Michael Mueller, Federal Chairman, NaturFreunde Deutschlands e.V.

Ria Noskovics, Federal Executive Committee, BUNDjugend

Felix Krauss, Chairman of the Board, Nuernberger Menschenrechtszentrum e.V.

Therese Wenzel, Managing Director, Weltfriedensdienst e.V.

Mariana Lechterbeck Co-Chair of the Women's League for Peace and Freedom Germany

Rudolf Mehl, Chair of the German branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation

Br. Juergen Neitzert and Br. Markus Fuhrmann, German Franciscan Province

Gerhard E. Fuchs-Kittowski, President of the German Peace Council

Benno Malte Fuchs State, Executive Director of DFG-VK NRW

[1] Among others: Response to Bundestag inquiry (2024): https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/20/119/2011991.pdf and response of the BMVG to parliamentary inquiry (2021)

[2] Michael Krennerich (2020): Shadow Report on Child Soldiers, https://www.unter18nie.de/publikationen/

[3] Position paper of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag

[4] Current recommendations (Concluding Observations) Nos. 44 and 45 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to Germany (2022)

[5] Sweden's recommendation to Germany in the UN Human Rights Council (2023), documented in the Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review Germany, paragraph 140.262

Ralf Willinger, Terre des Hommes
+49-541-7101-108
r.willinger@tdh.de

"Unter 18 Nie! Keine Minderjaehrigen in der Bundeswehr" (Under 18 Never! No Minors in the German Armed Forces) is an alliance of 10 organizations from the fields of human rights, peace, churches, and trade unions that campaign for raising the recruitment age for soldiers in the German Armed Forces to 18 and for stopping the German Armed Forces from advertising to minors

This release was published on openPR.