Population: 19.8 million (10.0 million under 18)
Government Armed Forces: 11,200
Compulsary Recruitment Age: 19
Voluntary Recruitment Age: 18
Voting Age: 18
Optional Protocol: acceded 19 October 2004
Other Treaties: GC AP I, GC AP II, CRC, ILO 138, ILO 182, ACRWC

There were no reports of under-18s serving in the armed forces. The minimum age for voluntary and compulsory recruitment was 18, but it could be lowered in times of war.

Government:

National recruitment and legislation

According to the constitution, "participating in the defence of national independence and sovereignty and territorial integrity are an honour and the sacred duty of all Mozambicans". The constitution also allows civilian service to substitute for or complement military service for those not subject to military duties, including conscientious objectors.1

Under the Law on Military Service all Mozambican citizens were obliged to register for two years' military service at 18, and were liable for service until the age of 35. However, age limits could be altered in time of war. Actual incorporation into the armed forces took place in the year the recruit reached 20 years of age. Eighteen was also the minimum age for special recruitment, a category that included voluntary military service.2

There was no evidence of under-age recruitment, and the law provided for exemptions from military service for the sons or brothers of soldiers who died in service and young people who were head of the household or the family breadwinner. Although those who failed to register for the call-up were supposedly subject to sanctions, these were not specified and there were no legal mechanisms to make young people register for military service.3 As a result, few people had registered for military service and every year over 90 per cent of 18-year-olds had refused to do so. However, in 2006 penalties were introduced for failing to register, and registration became a precondition for obtaining or renewing passports and for accessing employment in the civil service. As a result, the number registering for military service soared to 167,000, well beyond the government's target of 59,000. Most of those who registered were over 18 and the majority of 18-year-olds still did not do so, as happened in the registration exercise of 2007.4

Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR):

The proliferation of small arms, a continuing legacy of 16 years of civil war, remained a problem. In August 2005 the UN Development Program (UNDP) provided US$550,000 to assist the government in the implementation of a two-year project to collect and destroy illegal arms.5 Thousands of illegal arms and weapons of war, including rockets and landmines, were destroyed in October 2006, when it was estimated that some 42,000 firearms and over 260 million rounds of ammunition had been recovered since 1994.6 Despite these efforts tons of obsolete weaponry and munitions continued to be kept in poorly maintained arsenals, and in 2007 one such dump on the outskirts of Maputo exploded, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds more civilians and soldiers.7

Developments:

International standards

Mozambique acceded to the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict on 19 October 2004. In its declaration the government stated that the minimum age of enlistment was 18, that "incorporation" started at age 20, and that in case of war the age of military service could be modified.8

1 Constitution, Article 267.

2 Law on Military Service, 24/97 of 23 December 1997.

3 Ibid.

4 "Registration for military service soars", Mozambique News Agency, 31 May 2006; "Regularização do SMO como condicionalismo para benefícios", Vertical, 12 January 2007.

5 "PNUD reforca controlo das armas ilegais no pais", Notícias, 26 August 2005.

6 "Illegal arms, mines to be destroyed in Mozambique", Agence France-Presse, 16 October 2006.

7 Mozambique News Agency, "Over a hundred dead as military arsenal explodes", AIM Report No. 338, www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news.

8 Declaration of Mozambique on accession to the Optional Protocol, www2.ohchr.org.

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