Civil society organizations have launched a campaign to demand that the Mexican government classify the forced recruitment of children, adolescents, and teenagers as a crime, and to create public prevention policies and programs to disengage victims. The organizations point out that forced recruitment has gone unpunished since 2006, when the federal government declared war on organized crime, and since then, this practice has been systematically documented in remote communities and indigenous towns. According to Tejiendo Redes Infancia, minors are forced to take on roles as informants, cooks, porters, victims of sexual exploitation, or human shields. They warn that this severely affects their development and security, as well as that of their communities. 'Every day, more stories of missing adolescents are recorded, while searching mothers face persecution and authorities fail in their obligation to protect them,' the organization explained in a press release. The campaign urges the Legislative Branch and the federal government to act immediately, and among its demands is to classify child recruitment as a crime. Additionally, it calls for the implementation of specialized care programs and inter-institutional coordination mechanisms. They also request that authorities collaborate with international bodies, such as the UNOHCHR and the IACHR, to guarantee the protection of children and ensure accountability. Organizations like REDIM and Reinserta estimate that around 35,000 underage people are recruited each year in Mexico. Despite this, more than 50 legislative initiatives to classify this crime as such have been stalled since 2011. On the occasion of the World Day of the Red Hands, celebrated on February 12, the campaign seeks to raise awareness about the severity of the problem and gather citizen signatures; each action, they explain, is a way to pressure for effective legal reforms. The organization concluded that this effort is not only a call for justice but also an action for the protection and dignity of Mexican childhood, which deserves to live free of violence. To pressure on this situation, a signature collection campaign has been set up on Change.org to support this initiative.
