Child Soldiers Essay

Children are human beings. Hence, they are also entitled to have, claim and receive protection of their rights. Unfortunately, due to their young age, most of them are still blind to the rights they have, and adults with non-altruistic motivation exploit them. In countries where conflict is a part of daily activities, poverty is a lifestyle and education is rare, children are becoming mere object and tool for people. In countries with armed conflicts, such as those in Africa, children are used to handling AK-47 and killing people. People call these children associated with armed forces as child soldiers. 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,

United Nations agencies and human rights watch organizations cannot even keep track of the number of child soldiers, since the figures rapidly change. The estimation is about 200,000 to 300,000 child soldiers around the world with most of them coming from Africa. Many of these children are as young, even younger than, 10 years old. Both girls and boys are used to perform as fighters and other war and domestic duties, even as suicide bombers or human

The awareness of the international community needs to be fostered to press that child soldiers are wrong and would eliminate a generation in the process. Up until now, the international public pressure has experience several successes, some countries and armed rebel groups have agreed and committed themselves to return the children and not to recruit them as soldiers or part of hostilities anymore. Even so, monitoring of the commitments need to be done seriously. Education and rehabilitation program can also start to enter the conflicting regions. All in all, the children’s rights movement against child soldiers needs the support from the international public to press the armed groups to stop recruiting