REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA

Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

  • Population:
    – total: 8,142,000
    – under-18s: 3,763,000
  • Government armed forces:
    – active: 32,500
    – paramilitary: 37,100
  • Compulsory recruitment age: 18
  • Voluntary recruitment age: unknown
  • Voting age (government elections): 18 (married), 21 (single)
  • Child soldiers: indicated – 40 per cent of armed forces are under 18; half of these may be under 16
  • CRC-OP-CAC: not signed
  • Other treaties ratified: CRC; GC/API+II; ILO 138
  • Almost half of Bolivia's armed forces are under 18, including some children as young as 14. Poor adolescents are targeted for conscription.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation and Practice

According to the Constitution, all Bolivians have a fundamental duty to undertake military service as provided for by national law.239 Article 1 of Decreto Ley No. 13.907 (27 August 1976) states that military service lasts for one year and is compulsory for all Bolivians who are 18.240

There are continuing reports that military officers mistreat conscripts.241 Cooperative agreements for human rights training were signed in late 1999 between the military, the Ombudsman's office and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.242

Child Recruitment

According to one source, some 40 per cent of the armed forces are under 18, and 50 per cent of these are under 16.243 Bolivia acknowledged in its initial report to the Committee to the Rights of the Child that "[a]lthough the minimum age for performing military service is 18, when the annual intake into the armed forces cannot be made up on a voluntary basis, compulsory recruitment is indiscriminate, an occasion for forcibly recruiting poor adolescents, including some as young as 14, by means of organised sweeps."244 The government further recognised that "military service has been turned into a way of institutionalizing discrimination based on economic situation and social class, since the children of city families with means can illegally acquire a certificate of military service, and escape obligation, while for urban young men without means and, in general, for those in rural areas, a year in barracks is unavoidable."245 Conscripts are mostly abandoned minors or those recommended by officials. They perform domestic tasks or play with bands while living in army barracks.246

Military Training and Military Schools

Pre-military service, which involves military and civilian training at weekends, was reintroduced by the Decreto Supremo No. 24.527 on 17 March 1997. This service, intended to prepare youth for the defence of the country, is performed on a voluntary basis. Applicants are students of in their final year of secondary education, and they have similar rights and duties to service.247 By mid-1997 there were 20,000 young men in pre-military service.

239 Articles 8(f) and 213 of the 1967 Constitution.

240 Information received from official sources.

241 US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2000: Bolivia, 2001.

242 Ibid.

243 Letter by Juan Ramon Quintana, Director, Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios para la Paz, to the CSC, La Paz, 2/6/99.

244 Ibid., para. 154.

245 Periodic Report of Bolivia to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/65/Add.1, 1 December 1997, para. 153.

246 Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit.

247 Information obtained from official documents.

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