During the past year of 2017, the amount of enlisted child soldiers in the Middle East and North Africa have doubled, specifically in places that are corrupted by war such as Syria Yemen and Iraq. One may ask what a child soldier is. A child soldier, according to the United Nations definition, is a soldier that is under the age of 18. The use of them is frowned upon in many places and is also often illegal, even though researchers estimate that there are now 28 million active child soldiers across the globe. That means one in fifty children is a child soldier. They are also notoriously known for their criminal acts, including assault and robbery just to name a few. They also live in horrid conditions. Many citizens debate about child soldiers. Some people believe that child soldiers should be jailed for their crimes although I believe they should given amnesty because, they have been traumatized, have never been taught right from wrong, and they have no control in what they are doing. They deserve …show more content…
Where others had parents and school, these young soldiers did not. One can conclude that from the statement of Abdisalam Abdillahi from the article “Armed and Underage” “He should be in school,” says Awil’s commander, Abdisalam Abdillahi that youngsters should be in school and not being a menace to society. “But there is no school to attend.” Also, one can conclude that many do not have parents and/or parental guidance because many parents sell them off in desperation. The statement from the article “Child Soldiers: Perpetrators or Victims?” from the organization “Invisible Children” concludes that there are over one million orphaned. They did not have parents or school to teach what behaviors are right and which ones are wrong. If no one in the world had been taught the difference, then they would all be criminals in one extent or the
A child soldier is defined as someone who is under eighteen years of age and is actively fighting in war. It is estimated by UNICEF that some 300,000 child soldiers, both boys and girls, are currently fighting in wars. A majority of children are turned into child soldiers through recruitment or force while others join because they live in a poverty stricken area or a war zone. (UNICEF) Most child soldiers range ...
The lack of parenting during the civil war in Sierra Leone is a major cause that leads to the use of child soldiers during the war. The outbreak of the war in Sierra Leone caused everyone to run for their lives, leaving behind loved ones. Due to the sudden outbreak, many children were split apart from their parents leaving them abandoned. Wen the war began “fathers had come running from their workplaces, only to stand in front of their empty houses with no indication of where their families had gone. Mothers wept as they ran towards schools, rivers and water taps to look for their children. Children ran home to look for their parents who were wandering the streets in search of them. As the gunfire intensified, people gave up looking for their loved ones and ran out of town” (Beah 9). Ishmael realizes that he will be alone without his family and begins to feel as if a part of his is lost. As for the separation of families, the children in Sierra Leone were forced to make their own sensible decisions in order to stay alive during that time. Young children who lost their families were brainwashed into believing that fighting in the war was the right thing to do. Correspondingly, the lack of parenting during this difficult...
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.
As defined by Timothy Webster, author of Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, a child soldier is “any person under the age of eighteen who is or has been associated with any kind of regular or irregular armed group, including those who serve as porters, spies, cooks, messengers and including girls recruited for sexual purposes (Webster, 2007, pp.230). As this definition reveals, a child soldier is more than simply a child with a gun. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18, being used as soldiers in 33 conflicts currently, and this figure continues to rise (Webster, 2007, pp.227). Similarly, in 1999 it was estimated that more than 120,000 children, under the age of 18, were used as soldiers to fight ...
Children at such a young age don't have the mental ability to think long term about their actions, especially when they are being forced or drugged. 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 commit their crimes, child soldiers are forced to commit crimes. 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).
The civil war of Sierra Leone lasted from 1991 to 2002. In this civil war approximately fifteen thousand kids were forced to become soldiers. Either by being kidnapped or by having their lives threatened. The situation was an extremely sad one. They had no choice weather they wanted to be soldiers or not. Like Ishmael said in A Long Way Gone, “It was either kill or be killed.” This situation is one where most people would not even be able to imagine themselves in. Ishmael Beah was a boy who suffered, because of the civil war. His family was killed and he was forced to become a soldier for the military. He eventually was rescued by UNICEF and eventually moved to the United States. For a decade, there has been a war between Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government. There have been an unacceptable number of kids that have been used as soldiers in this war. Approximately, thirty thousand youngsters have been forced into becoming soldiers. In contrast to Sierra Leone, the soldiers here are only for the drug cartels, but in Sierra Leone even the government made the children become soldiers too. Just like the children of Sierra Leone, the children of Mexico are also kidnapped or threatened into becoming soldiers. Once captured, they are transformed into belligerent
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...
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.
They are just kids. Only, they are not normal, they have lost everything they love and need to feel safe. Their family, a reliable food source, and their shelter- all gone. These kids are left completely stranded. Searching for the things that were taken from them. This is terrible because when these kids see others around their age fighting with these commanders, that are around the age of their parents or older siblings… the kids must think that now they have a chance getting the things they are searching for. Although now they are trapped, they are going to fight with these people no matter what, and some of these commanders have children as young as nine years old fighting for on their front lines. As told in the article “Armed and Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman. Also, it is not just boys who are joining and fighting. Girls will join too, because they are looking for the same thing. But it is even worse for them. They are forced to be cooks, messengers, spies, and sexual slaves. This comes with sexual abuse, and rape. The sad thing is, this is only my first reason as to why child soldiers should be given amnesty, and a guided path to
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.
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.
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.
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.
Many people believe this and I recognize why, but on the other hand, child soldiers should not be locked away and actually be put into rehab so they become less of a danger. Many citizens also think, child soldiers should be locked away since all of their actions as an illegal soldier were indeed, illegal. This would make sense if they chose to join as an illegal soldier, but what they didn’t choose though was whether they were forced into doing all of these illegal crimes with drugs and alcohol stuffed in them. So why lock them away for doing something they had no control over doing? Finally, it has been said by many people that child soldiers are exact replicas of child criminals. For example, “Child soldiers are no different from child criminals. Child soldiers have been responsible for some of the most brutal and violent acts in wartime. In Sierra Leone child soldiers committed acts of rape, mutilation and mass killings of civilians” (INSERT author). To reinforce what was said before, these kids had no control over what they were doing! They were just trying to defend their drugged, abused, and unprotected bodies from getting injured in battle. Imagine you were a child soldier in battle. They drugged you up before hitting the fields. You see a large man with a gun bigger than yours. Do you fight back, or just stand there and let him kill
Child Soldiers: The use of children in the military. Child Soldiers have three different roles in armed conflict. They can take a direct part in hostilities, or they can be used for support, such as sexual slaves, lookouts, messengers, and spies. Also, they can be used in the political aspect of war. Because many children have been physically or mentally damaged by their participation in armed conflict, children should not have any involvement in any armed conflict and should be removed indefinitely from warfare. Every child has the right to go to school, free from violence. Children have been used in the military for hundreds of years.