Population: 81,000 (41,000 under 18)
Government Armed Forces: 200
Compulsary Recruitment Age: no conscription
Voluntary Recruitment Age: 18 (younger with parental consent)
Voting Age: 18
Optional Protocol: signed 23 January 2001
Other Treaties: GC AP I, GC AP II, CRC, ILO 138, ILO 182, ACRWC

No information was available on the presence of under-18s in the armed forces. Volunteers could be recruited under the age of 18 with parental consent.

Government:

National legislation and recruitment practices

There were no reports of under-18s in the security forces. In its initial report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the government stated that there was no conscription. It reported that the minimum age for voluntary military service in the Defence Forces was 18 and that exceptions required the written consent of a parent or guardian.1 In its consideration of the report, the Committee recommended the government ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.2

1 Initial report of Seychelles to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/3/Add.64, 3 May 2002.

2 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of initial report of Seychelles, UN Doc. CRC/C/SR.816, September 2002, Concluding observations, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.189, 9 October 2002.

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