We at the University of Georgia School of Law Dean Rusk International Law Center were honored to host a recent two-part workshop intended to advance consideration of harms against children in a future crimes against humanity treaty.

U.N. member states took a first step toward negotiating this treaty with the January 19-30, 2026, meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity. Subsequent PrepComm sessions are expected to develop the text of the treaty, based both on the 2019 International Law Commission Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity and on proposals to amend that draft.

Expanding that draft to include children’s concerns – specifically, by enumerating the recruitment and use of children as a standalone crime against humanity – was the aim of the Working Group on a Standalone Crime of Recruitment & Use of Children under the Crimes Against Humanity Treaty which our Center hosted. As explained by a briefing paper circulated before the first workshop:

Estimates indicate that a staggering 473 million children (or 18.9% of the global child population) live in conflict-affected areas and are at heightened risk of being recruited by State and non-State actors alike. The physical and developmental harms resulting from child recruitment and use can be severe and often long-lasting. Children may suffer death, physical injuries, or permanent disabilities because of combat, and many experience serious psychological trauma from being forced to commit or witness acts of violence. Even those not directly involved in combat are also at risk of attack due to their perceived association with armed actors. Recruited girls and boys are also frequently subjected to rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and other forms of sexual violence. For most children, recruitment also interrupts or ends their schooling, limiting future opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and civic participation. The harms experienced by recruited children are comparable in nature and gravity to other crimes against humanity enumerated in the Draft Articles.

Diane Marie Amann, who is Regents Professor Emerita, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and a former Center Faculty Co-Director at Georgia Law, was a co-convenor of the Working Group, along with Zama Neff, Executive Director of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, Laura Perez, Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs, and Janine Morna, Researcher on Children at the Amnesty International Crisis Response Programme.

Other experts in the Working Group included: Kelly Adams, Legal Action Worldwide; Cécile Aptel and Miles Hastie; Jo Becker and Katherine La Puente, Human Rights Watch; Alec Wargo and Claire Bertouille, Office of the Special Representative to the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict; Michelle Jarvis, International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism; Christopher Lentz, University of Chicago; Mikiko Otani, Child Rights Connect; and Rachel Sloth-Nielsen, University of Oxford. (Affiliations for identifying purposes only.)

Once published, the proposed text for the crime of recruitment and use will join other proposals related to children and the crimes against humanity treaty. These include two to which various Working Group members also contributed: “Justice for Children in the Future Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity,” launched at a May 2025 conference at Columbia University; and “Children,” published in January 2026 by the American Branch of the International Law Association Study Group on Crimes Against Humanity.