Ireland should raise the minimum age at which it recruits soldiers from 17 to 18, the sixth Irish Amnesty International student and youth conference in Trinity College Dublin heard at the weekend.
Mr Martin McPherson, an adviser with the legal and international department of Amnesty International, was speaking on a proposed optional protocol to the UN convention on the rights of the child which would forbid the use of those under 18 in hostilities.
Countries such as the US and Britain had opposed moves to bar recruitment below 18 as they felt it necessary to recruit those of school-leaving age, he said.
In Ireland, the Defence Forces permit recruitment at 17 and Mr McPherson said there were a number of reasons why this should change.
"If Ireland was to increase its minimum age it would be joining the majority of nations and setting an example for others."
The protocol is designed to bring recruitment ages in line with the convention on the rights of the child, which defines those under 18 as children.
Mr McPherson said that in negotiations it had been agreed that countries could recruit volunteers for their armed forces from the age of 16. In theory these recruits would not be sent to hostile areas until they were 18, but "what the governments have said to us is `if we recruit under the age of 18 then we can't give a cast-iron guarantee that those recruits won't be used', " he said.
Ireland was not represented in the negotiations in Geneva.
Those attending the conference, mostly 15-17 year-olds, heard of the 300,000 child soldiers in the world. Amnesty International's Irish president, Ms Mary Lawlor, spoke of an Angolan boy named Ben who had been conscripted when he was 18, injured by a grenade, "witnessed many atrocities" and was now studying in Dublin.
He was due to be deported as he had failed to gain asylum here, she said.
Yesterday there was a protest on Dublin's Grafton street by people dressed as child soldiers.