- Updated January 15, 2026
Years Listed
Each shaded box corresponds to a year the country appeared on the CSPA list and what types of waivers it received, if any.
Afghanistan has appeared on the CSPA list every year since 2019 for a total of six years. Although government forces in Afghanistan – including the Afghan Local Police and the Afghan National Police – have recruited and used child soldiers for decades, the country did not appear on the CSPA list until a 2019 amendment expanded the scope of national security forces covered by the law.1For a timeline of amendments to the CSPA, see https://www.stimson.org/project/child-soldiers/cspa-implementation-tracker/about-cspa/. While the United States has not yet made a decision as to whether to recognize the Taliban government as the official government of Afghanistan, the country has remained on the CSPA list since the Taliban rose to power in 2021.
In both 2019 and 2020, the U.S. president fully waived CSPA prohibitions against the provision of U.S. arms sales and military assistance to Afghanistan, resulting in the provision of more than $221 million in arms sales and military assistance between FY2020 and FY2021. Specifically, the president waived over $216 million in Direct Commercial Sales, more than $3.8 million in Excess Defense Articles, and over $1.3 million in International Military Education and Training. The U.S. stopped providing Afghanistan arms sales and military assistance subject to the CSPA after the Taliban re-gained power in 2021.
According to the U.S. State Department, forces of Afghanistan’s pre-Taliban government – including the Afghan National Army (ANA), Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan Local Police (ALP), and National Directorate of Security (NDS) – as well as pro-government militias that received support from the Afghan government, recruited and used children in both combat and non-combat roles until and through their loss of power in August 2021.2Government of the United States, U.S. Department of State. “Afghanistan,” in Trafficking in Persons Report 2021, pp. 77, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf (https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/afghanistan/).
This use and recruitment continued even as the pre-Taliban Afghan government undertook broader child protection efforts, including the establishment of Child Protection Units (CPUs) in Afghan National Police recruitment centers. The Afghan government made some notable progress in combatting the recruitment and use of child soldiers through the use of these CPUs (according to the Afghan executive office, its Ministry of Defense prevented the recruitment of more than 5,050 children into Afghan national defense and security forces in the 2021 reporting period alone), but civil society reported that the centers were not sufficiently equipped, staffed, or trained.3Government of the United States, U.S. Department of State. “Afghanistan,” in Trafficking in Persons Report 2021, pp. 79, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf (https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/afghanistan/). Further, while the government investigated some claims of child soldier recruitment and use by military and police officials during its tenure, these investigations never resulted in prosecutions.4Government of the United States, U.S. Department of State. “Afghanistan,” in Trafficking in Persons Report 2021, pp. 77, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf (https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/afghanistan/).
The recruitment and use of child soldiers in Afghanistan drastically increased following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.5Government of the United States, U.S. Department of State. “Afghanistan – Trafficking Profile,” in Trafficking in Persons Report 2023, https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report/afghanistan/. As of March 2024, the Taliban continued to recruit and use children in combat and non-combat roles and had not implemented measures to prevent the practice.6Government of the United States, U.S. Department of State. “Afghanistan,” in Trafficking in Persons Report 2024, https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-trafficking-in-persons-report/afghanistan/.; The 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report covers data and government actions occurring between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, to the extent concurrent reporting data is available.
U.S. presidents have been required since 2021 to include justifications for CSPA waivers that were issued during the previous year within the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. As such, Afghanistan’s 2020 waiver justification maintained that “[s]ecurity assistance to Afghanistan subject to the CSPA restriction fulfills critical U.S. counterterrorism objectives and fosters conditions that enable an end to the conflict in Afghanistan. For example, the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program funds professional military education and training for the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) that improves their capabilities, promotes respect for human rights, improves defense resource management, civil-military cooperation, and education on gender-based violence and women’s health, and enhances interoperability for U.S.-Afghan joint operations.”7Government of the United States, U.S. Department of State. “Afghanistan,” in Trafficking in Persons Report 2021, pp. 628-629, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf (https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/).
For more information, see the U.S. State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report and 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. More information on the situation in Afghanistan can also be found in the UN Secretary-General’s 2024 annual report on Children and Armed Conflict and 2023 country-specific report on Afghanistan.
Total Waived and Prohibited
Since the CSPA took effect.
Explore the Data
Country- and program-level data on the number and type of national interest waivers granted, as well as the amount of arms sales and military assistance waived.
