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Effects of war on family and society
Impacts of war on family
War effects on child development
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Recommended: Effects of war on family and society
Sometimes dealing with children can be a battle in itself, but in many countries, children fight the battles that adults have created. These young people are known as children warriors, soldiers, and combatants. The use of children in war is an unfortunate issue; but it is part of some people’s everyday life. Whether the child is fighting for their government or their life, they are often in constant danger. The foreign policies that have been put in place to protect children have yet to halt the ever-growing amount of children combatants.
The history and reasons why children join
Child combatants have been found on the battlefield throughout history. One of the first notable examples of the use of child combatants was the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), a militia group of young boys, that fought in the Nazi party during the closing days of World War II. There has since been a rise of children combatants on the modern-day battlefield. The rise in using children in combat is due to many factors. One of those factors are the crumbling social structures that surround children in the war torn countries. Without a solid social structure, children are more likely to be found on the battlefield. Additionally, a large majority of children volunteer to become soldiers. They often believe that the best option for survival is to join the fight instead of risking their lives battling against it. Other children enlist because they want to seek revenge on behalf of their families who have been murdered, raped, tortured, and abused by the conflict. (Kaplan) Other factors that lead children to join on the battlefield include poverty, lack of work, and few educational opportunities. Many girls that have joined have reported enlisting to escape do...
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"International Standards." The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2007. Web. 9 March 2011. .
"Children and Armed Conflict." UNICEF. UNICEF, 29 April 2008. Web. 9 March 2011. .
"History of the War." Invisible Children. Invisible Children, n.d. Web. 10 March 2011. .
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There is no exact known number of children currently being utilised in warfare worldwide. The issue of the military use of children is so widespread that no figure can be calculated, although it is estimated that there are currently over 250,000 child soldiers across the world. Many are drugged and brainwashed into murder, many are forced to sever all ties with their family or watch them die. Most are faced with a simple choice: kill or be killed. Although the notion of child soldiers is vastly alien to contemporary Australian society, it is a reality in many parts of the world.
...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.
As Garbarino recognizes, the effects of war and such violence is something that sticks with a child and remains constant in their everyday lives. The experiences that children face involving war in their communities and countries are traumatic and long lasting. It not only alters their childhood perspectives, but it also changes their reactions to violence over time. Sadly, children are beginning to play more of a major role in wars in both the...
Everett, J. (2008). The Battle Continues: Fighting for a more Child-Sensitive Approach to Asylum for Child Soldiers. Florida Journal of International Law , 21, 286-355.
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.
War has always been something to be dreaded by people since nothing good comes from it. War affects people of all ages, cultures, races and religion. It brings change, destruction and death and these affect people to great extents. “Every day as a result of war and conflict thousands of civilians are killed, and more than half of these victims are children” (Graca & Salgado, 81). War is hard on each and every affected person, but the most affected are the children.
A child soldier is a child who has been abducted and forced to fight in a conflict in which they would not typically be involved in. Child soldiers have their relatively normal childhood taken away if they are abducted. Instead of playing with the other children, they are forced to murder them. Many are forced to watch the people they once knew be tortured and they may even take part in the act. Child soldiers are internationally banned, yet many countries still utilize them to this day. Uganda is one country in which they are used. The use of children in armed combat in Uganda sheds light on the fact that the concept of power is indeed a double-edged sword.
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.
Ishmael Beah first spoke of the horrors he had witnessed at the “1996 United Nations presentation of the Machel Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” (“Advocate for Children,” Par. 3). This presentation focused on the devastating effects that war imparts on the children involved. Today, Beah continues to advocate and represent change for the countless number of children still involved in wars around the
Though the use of child soldiers is a global concern, the highest numbers have been reported mainly in Africa and Asi...
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.
Every year an estimation of child soldiers is about 300,000. Child soldiers are another form of human trafficking or in other words modern day slavery. A child soldier is any child under the age of eighteen who is a part of any armed grouped. Children, who are poor, have limited access to education or separated are most likely to be abducted. Both girls and boys as young as age seven are forced into child soldiers. Young girls and women are raped by the soldiers and if they refuse they are killed instantly. Once recruited, child soldiers serve as spies, cooks, messengers, and guards. Children are easily targeted because they can easily be manipulated especially when drugs are being
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
The "World Report 2013" Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 2013. Web. The Web. The Web.