A majority of standing armies in democratic countries are composed of voluntary forces. Countries not already at this stage are moving toward it. Child soldiers are abused by their own side and are subject to further abuse if captured by the opposition. They are not given suitable health care if they are injured. When they serve no further use they are discarded, sent out of the army with no structural support to ease reintegration into society.
Most states provide very little in the way of counseling and health care for child soldiers.
Child soldiers are usually not discussed during cease-fire negotiations, thus provisions for their welfare and demobilization are rarely made. These children have no skills for life in peacetime and they are accustomed to getting their way through violence. The most likely circumstance in which recruitment of children soldiers occurs is when an internal armed conflict, or a non-international conflict, takes place. In the majority of situations, the government denies involvement in an internal armed conflict as classified by the 1949 Geneva Conventions or the 1977 Additional Protocols, under the belief that such a denial will prevent the application of international humanitarian law. Denial of internal armed conflict status defines the situation as one of internal strife, thus placing it outside the scope of groups such as ICRC, which makes monitoring governmental activity much more difficult and enables governments to recruit young children without any international observation.