Child soldiers are a prevalent issue in the international community and must be stopped. Whether kidnapped, enslaved, or volunteered: child soldiers are a clear violation of human rights. The United Nations are actively working to eradicate the issue by creating programs such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which is a treaty that contains three Optional Protocols, the first of which is aimed at protecting children’s rights. UNICEF is an organization created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946 to “advocate for the protection of children 's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential (UNICEF 's Mission Statement UNICEF locates the children who have been enlisted in rebel groups and frees them primarily through negotiation with governments of these countries and providing alternate opportunities for these children, such as education or paid labor. About 25 years ago, UNICEF enacted the Convention of the Rights of the Child. This document lists 54 articles concerning every single right every single child should have regardless of race, sex, location, religion, etc.. This document also contains three optional protocols directed These children – who have known war, murder, and violence all of their lives – have a significantly tough time becoming reintegrated back into society. The effects on both the boys and girls taken out of war are lasting and will haunt these children for years to come. Many girls were often raped, forced into sexual relationships, or were forced to become barren. Their leaders would often beat the girls if they did not comply. “Although most girls had joined voluntarily, nearly all regretted their decision and what they had missed by not going to school [and] some could not read or write (Lamberg 2004).” The girls who have had sexual relationships with men in their militia against their will, oftentimes find it hard to find a mate once they become reintegrated back into society for they are no longer pure. Boys were reported to become “forced perpetrators” of sexual violence writes Derluyn (2011). “Therefore, it is extremely important to recognize that, similar to the well-known trauma faced by the child soldiers when forced to commit or witness atrocities in war, participation in sexual violence is highly damaging and perhaps irreversible (Derluyn
...be seen as an entity that promotes vile results. However, it is imperative to understand that globalization is multilayered and difficult to fully understand. In the case of child soldiers, globalization has played a pertinent role in unifying international organizations in hopes of finding a solution to this “phenomenon”. On the other hand, although certain international organizations such as United Nations have had a prominent role in advocating against child soldiery, for the following reasons, its attempts are insufficient: it lacks the ability to enforce sanctions established within the international community and it does not do enough to recognize the political, social and economic inequalities that are prevalent in most of these fragile states. Therefore, child soldiery, cannot be eradicated until these issues are dealt with on a collective global scale.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
First of all the child soldiers/suicide bombers are located in many different continents all around the world. The majority is based in the Middle East and Africa: Burma, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Congo, Liberia, and also Sierra Leone (British Broadcasting Corporation World Watch). Being poor, disconnected from their families, or get a poor to no education make them more likely to become victims (Human Rights Watch). Girls make up an estimated 10-30% of the child soldiers in Uganda and Nepal (Do Something). Some join because they are too young to realize the consequences that war may bring upon them, and want to be a part of the army because of the weapons they use and uniforms they wear. Being bathed, fed, and properly clothed is another reason for them wanting to be a part of these groups, in which they would not receive during their every-day lives (British Broadcasting Corporation World Watch). The children that survive the war are captured by the rebel groups and are then converted into child soldiers, along with the kids who had just...
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
“Children, you call them? They can pull a trigger just as well as veterans …” (Colonel Marcus Cullen, War Hammer 40,000). People should question the world in which they live when a child is forced to become a soldier. Especially when the children are under the age of 18, they should not be required to fight. Many children who are demanded to fight are taken from their families. These young adolescents are mistreated; malnurtured, abused and the girls are usually used for sexual purposes.
United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child.[online] Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2014].
Save The Children Australia is one of the largest aid and development agencies dedicated towards helping all children. They work towards protecting children from harm and helping them to get the opportunity to have access to quality education and health services. World Vision is a NGO which main goal is to overcome poverty and to spread their beliefs of Christianity to those which are not as blessed as others. However, they contribute to raising awareness towards child soldiers through their website and anyone is able to donate money to the children. Child Soldier International is an international human rights organization which is directly dedicated to ending the abuse of children as child soldiers. They aim to build resistance to the conscription of children and persuade governments and armed forces to end the recruitment of
Throughout the world children younger than 18 are being enlisted into the armed forces to fight while suffering through multiple abuses from their commanders. Children living in areas and countries that are at war are seemingly always the ones being recruited into the armed forces. These children are said to be fighting in about 75 percent of the world’s conflicts with most being 14 years or younger (Singer 2). In 30 countries around the world, the number of boys and girls under the age of 18 fighting as soldiers in government and opposition armed forces is said to be around 300,000 (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). These statistics are clearly devastating and can be difficult to comprehend, since the number of child soldiers around the world should be zero. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands adolescent children are being or have been recruited into paramilitaries, militias and non-state groups in more than 85 countries (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). This information is also quite overwhelming. Child soldiers are used around the world, but in some areas, the numbers are more concentrated.
United Nations, (1990). United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York, USA.
These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.
One of the major problems in the Middle East is child related. To be specific, child soldiers. It is estimated that there are over 38,000 kids who are forced into being child soldiers (Storr). Because child soldiers can’t prevent their horrific fate, they deserve to be granted amnesty by the United Nations. One main reason why they should be given amnesty is because they are forced and drugged into becoming killers.
Africa houses the largest population of child soldiers based on the prevalence of armed conflict in the continent. Some of the regions where child soldiers have become the norm rather than the exception include Chad, Somalia, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Based on the statistics developed by the United Nations in the year 2013, eight government armies had made the commitment to stop the process of child recruitment for the use of warfare (Tiefenbrun 420). Although statistics are high in the African continent, other regions of the world such as Bahrain, Afghanistan and the greater Asia and oceanic areas abduct and force children into submission through acts of cruelty. These are violence and forced killings, while at other instances, some children join willingly in a bid to fight poverty, causes of revenge, and sometimes in defense of their neighborhoods and villages (Macmulin 460) . Child recruitment is an unacceptable practice and must relevant parties and actors must work together to stop it at any cost.
On a typical day, children in America spend their time doing homework, watching television, and playing with friends. However, in other parts of the world, children are being abducted, sold, and recruited into armies. Their fate and future is not longer under their control but in the hands of their leaders. According to the international definition, a child soldier is “any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes” (“Who”). While the use of child soldiers is prevalent in many countries, the worst cases occur in South Sudan due to an ongoing
A child is the next generation in changing the world. Under harsh and cruel influences their path become to be a child soldiers. People who lost a loved one and want justice done on the child soldiers that did not have control of what they are doing to commit the crime. Around the world, at least 300,000 children are soldiers. The children are destroyed from not having a childhood when they are given this task of being a soldier. Many Child soldiers should receive amnesty unless they willingly volunteer to be a child soldiers. They are more like victims than killer because they are adolescents, sensitive, not given a choice, and afraid to escape.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, hereafter referred to as ‘CRC’, is the most inclusive legal document devoted to the promotion and protection of children’s rights. Upon ratification, State Parties are supposed to be bound to the CRC through international law. However, as Cynthia Price Cohen (one of the drafters of the CRC) identifies, the CRC ‘does not lay down specific rules with sanctions for noncompliance’. Thus, it is imperative that the CRC have enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure implementation. This essay will discuss how the existing weak enforcement mechanism is hindering the State Parties from reaching the objectives of the CRC.