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News

“Catch-22”: Campaigners launch legal battle with MoD over recruitment of minors

08/10/2014

Child Soldiers International press release

Campaigners lodge claim for judicial review of “Catch-22” rules, which force youngest recruits to serve for longest. New poll: public support for raising armed forces’ enlistment age to 18 continues to grow.


Comment article

Military activity in UK schools

02/10/2014

ForcesWatch comment

The encroachment of the UK military and ‘military ethos’ on the UK education system means that alternatives to war and peaceful ways of resolving conflict will be more difficult for young people to explore. This article was originally published on Information for Social Change.


Comment article

Launch of new film on the military and young people

01/07/2014

ForcesWatch comment

On Thursday 26 June 2014, we launched our new short documentary film 'Engage: the military and young people', at Friends House in London. A packed and diverse audience watched the film, which was very well-received. Speakers included Ben Griffin, founder of Veterans for Peace UK, Sam Hepworth from Headliners (the youth journalists charity who made the film) and some of the young filmmakers, and Owen Everett, Education Campaign worker at ForcesWatch.


News

Quaker report opposes increasing militarisation

27/06/2014

Ekklesia

“The stirring music, smart uniforms and synchronised marching that characterise Armed Forces Day are a glossy front behind which sits a deliberate strategy to manipulate the public,”


News

Young people criticise military activities in schools as government announces more funding for cadets

23/06/2014

ForcesWatch press release

A week after the government pledged a further £1 million for more cadet forces in state secondary schools, a new film is launched which shows that many young people are critical of the promotion of military activities in their schools.


News

Your country needs your children – MoD targets teens to fix recruitment crisis

27/05/2014

Child Soldiers International press release

Amid ongoing controversy around the MoD’s struggling recruitment campaigns for the armed forces, figures published this week reveal that the Army has resorted to increasing numbers of 16-year-olds in an attempt to fix the recruitment shortfall.


Comment article

Questioning military academies and free schools

20/05/2014

ForcesWatch Comment

This article explains what we mean by  'military academies' and 'military free schools', and explores the concerns that they raise: the lack of evidence that they will raise attainment; that they can employ unqualified teachers; their limited accountability to the local community; the fact that they can set their own curriculum. Crucially, there are various agendas behind military academies and free schools, including providing employment for the growing number of veterans, and encouraging pupils to join the armed forces after they leave school. There is also unease about what military-style discipline would look like in a school environment.


News

Drone Wars: Pilots reveal debilitating stress beyond virtual battlefield

13/05/2014

livescience.com

"To extinguish a person's life is a very personal thing. While physically we don't experience the five senses when we engage a target — unlike [how] an infantryman might — in my experience, the emotional impact on the operator is equal."


News

FUTURE ARMY 2020: Defence Committee increases pressure to MoD to raise enlistment age to 18

05/03/2014

Child Soldiers International press release

The Defence Select Committee has increased the pressure on the MoD to stop enlisting minors, in a report published today.


News

In praise of the white poppy

05/11/2013

Ekklesia

Jill Segger considers the growing appeal of the white poppy