Child Soldiers Amnesty

819 Words2 Pages

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. Children at such a young age don't have the mental ability to think long term of their actions, especially when they are being forced or drugged to. Some may argue that if child criminals get punished for their actions then child soldiers should too, but that is just not the case. The difference being child criminals choose to
As an example, in the article Child Soldiers it states “ More often than not, children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children have become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol” (Child Soldiers) As you can see, this shows how children have no control if they kill or not from either being threatened with death or being drugged. In addition, in the article The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo it talks about how a child soldier got interrogated by guards where they told him he would be gang-raped and murdered if he didn’t obey (Prasow). This is another example of how these kids have to choose between life and death at such a young age. This is just one main reason why these kids deserve
Having them prosecuted and go through detention has been proven to be unsuccessful as said in the article Ex-Child-Soldier (Barnett). All it does is puts them in jail and makes them more angry and aggressive, but does not fix the deep problem. Instead, child soldiers should be sent to a rehabilitation center. To demonstrate in the articles Child Soldiers and Ex-Child- Soldier they both explain how rehabilitation programs are comprehensive, successful, and help the people reconnect to who they were (Barnett). Thus, rehabilitation centers are way more effective in helping to fix the problem, not cover it up. As you can see, child soldiers deserve to have a second chance so they can go to these rehabilitation centers and gain the ability to have a new

Open Document