Iranian authorities are trampling upon children’s rights and committing a grave violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime by recruiting and mobilizing children as young as 12 into a military campaign led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Amnesty International said today.
On 26 March 2026, a deputy of the IRGC Mohammad Rasoul Allah Corps of Greater Tehran, Rahim Nadali, announced that a recruitment campaign called the “Homeland-Defending Combatants for Iran” is “open to volunteers” aged 12 and above, encouraging registrations at Basij bases in mosques across Tehran to join “combatants defending the homeland.” Eyewitness accounts and verified audiovisual evidence show child soldiers having been deployed at IRGC checkpoints and patrols, armed with weapons, including AK47pattern rifles.
“The Iranian authorities are shamelessly encouraging children as young as 12 to join an IRGC-run military campaign, putting them in grave danger and violating international law, which prohibits the recruitment and use of children in the military. Recruiting children under 15 into the armed forces constitutes a war crime,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“As US and Israeli strikes hit thousands of IRGC sites, including Basij facilities, across the country, including through drone attacks targeting security patrols and checkpoints, the deployment of child soldiers alongside IRGC personnel or in their facilities puts them at grave risk of death and injury. Iranian authorities must immediately stop their criminal assault on children’s rights and prohibit the recruitment of anyone under 18 by the armed forces.”
According to official statements, under the announced campaign, recruits are being assigned to a range of activities linked to the IRGC’s “operational and security” activities, including patrols, checkpoint duties, logistical support, distribution of equipment and supplies, and assisting with food, medical and relief tasks.
Amnesty International has analysed 16 photos and videos that have appeared online since 21 March 2026, showing children wielding weapons such as AK-pattern assault rifles or standing alongside IRGC and other forces at checkpoints, on patrols and during state-organized militarized rallies in Tehran, Mashad and Kermanshah.
On 29 March, an 11-year-old boy, Alireza Jafari, was killed, while accompanying his father, a member of the IRGC’s Basij, at a checkpoint in Tehran, laying bare the devastating consequences of the presence of children at military objectives. Authorities have confirmed that the child was killed “while serving” at a checkpoint following an Israeli drone attack.
The boy’s mother told Hamshahri newspaper that on the night of the incident, her husband reported a “shortage of personnel” at checkpoints and took their sons, Alireza Jafari and his younger nine-year-old brother, with him. She added that her husband said Alireza “must get prepared for the days ahead” and that currently, children as young as 15 and 16 commonly take part in checkpoint duties.
A Senior Reporter for BBC Persian Forensic, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, shared with Amnesty International screenshots of text messages received from four eyewitnesses in Tehran, Karaj, and Rasht who reported seeing children deployed at Basijrun checkpoints and armed with weapons, including AK47pattern rifles, in March 2026.
In an interview aired by state media, a deputy of the IRGC Mohammad Rasoul Allah Corps of Greater Tehran, Rahim Nadali, spoke of the “high enthusiasm” among teenagers to join “intelligence and operational patrols,” saying: “Teenagers and youth have repeatedly come forward saying they want to take part… Given the ages of those making these requests, we have set the minimum age at 12. There are now kids aged 12-13 who want to be present in this space.”
According to Iranian authorities, Israeli-USA strikes have killed more than 1,900 people, including 249 women and 216 children. In one egregious incident, a USA strike on a school in Minab killed 168 people, including more than 100 children. Amnesty International’s investigation into the attack found that the school was directly hit with precision-guided munitions and that USA forces failed to do everything feasible to verify that the intended target was a military objective.
Attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran have killed at least 16 in Israel, four in the West Bank and 23 in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
The Iranian authorities have a record of violating international humanitarian law by recruiting children, particularly during the 1980s when, by their own admission, over 550,000 children were sent as child soldiers to the Iran–Iraq war, and at least 36,000 of them were killed.
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