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How war affects children
The issue of child soldiers
The issue of child soldiers
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Did you know,” experts estimate that more than 200,00 children worldwide are still being used as combatants, usually against their will. It isn't just boys: Girls are often pressed into duty as cooks or messengers Many are subjected to sexual abuse, including rape. The coalition to stop the use of child soldiers, a human- rights group based in London, defines a child soldier as anyone under the age of 18 who is a member of government armed forces or any other armed group.( The U.S.allows voluntary military enlistment with parental consent at age 17.) Child soldiers should receive amnesty, do to the fact children shouldn't have to go through a punishment like becoming a soldier and having to kill against their will. In some countries hunger and poverty drive parents to sell their children into service. What's more, children are often considered the perfect weapon: They are easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless, and most important, in endless supply.” Child soldiers are ideal,” a military commander from African nation of Chad told Human Rights watch. “They don't complain, they don't expect to be paid, and if you tell them kill, they kill.” Adults shouldn't make the kids fight, because they messed up and are now at war. …show more content…
All across Somalia, smooth, hairless faces peek out from behind enormous guns. In blown out buildings, children load bullets twice the size of their fingers. In neighborhoods by the sea, they run checkpoints and stop four- by - fours trucks, though they can barely see over their hoods. Today, the Asian nation of Myanmar (also known as Burma) has one of the world's highest rates of child- soldiers recruitment. Thousands of buys, some as young as 10, are purchased, kidnapped, or terrorized into joining the country's army. Some people way for fighting for your country, but kids should be able to live there life as children and not
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 ...
Many kids are involved around the world in violent wars as child soldiers. These children who were forced into being soldiers had no other choice but to face their own death and therefore should be granted amnesty. This is because the great majority of the kids were forced into being war fighters. Even then, some people think that just because they’re kids doesn’t change the fact that they have performed horrible acts, and that they should be punished for their actions. Also, these kids were forced to take drugs and drink alcohol which influenced bad decisions and made them less thoughtful about the harm they were doing. So, child soldiers should get another chance and be granted amnesty after proven worthy.
“This is how wars are fought now: by children, traumatized, hopped-up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s” (Beah). Innocent, vulnerable, and intimidated. These words describe the more than 300,000 children in nations throughout the world coerced into combat. As young as age seven, boys and girls deemed child soldiers participate in armed conflict, risking their lives and killing more innocent others. While many individuals recollect their childhood playing games and running freely, these children will remember “playing” with guns and running for their lives. Many children today spend time playing video games like Modern Warfare, but for some children, it is not a game, it is reality. Although slavery was abolished nearly 150 years ago, the act of forcing a child into a military position is considered slavery and is a continuously growing trend even today despite legal documents prohibiting the use of children under the age of 18 in armed conflict. Being a child soldier does not merely consist of first hand fighting but also work as spies, messengers, and sex slaves which explains why nearly 30 percent of all child soldiers are girls. While the use and exploitation of these young boys and girls often goes unnoticed by most of the world, for those who have and are currently experiencing life as a child soldier, such slavery has had and will continue to have damaging effects on them both psychologically and physically.
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
Children have been used as soldiers in many events, however two that stand out are the use of child soldiers in the Sierra Leone civil war and the drug cartels in Mexico. Most people agree that forcing children to be soldiers is wrong and not humane. The people that make them soldiers transform them into belligerent beings by force. Child soldiers of drug cartels and the armies of Sierra Leone were threatened with their lives if they didn’t become soldiers. The lives of these child soldiers are lives that nobody should live. Situations in both countries are horrible because of the high number of youngsters that are forced to take part in drug use and are transformed into extremely belligerent and inhumane people; in addition they are deprived
In the world, there are about 300,000 children recruited as child soldiers (Hill 1). One-third of this number of children fight and serve for the government military or rebel groups in Africa (Hill 1). “According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, child soldiers are defined as all children engaged in hostilities under age 18. Although they are under 18, the roles of children in armed conflict are not limited because of their young age. Some children fight on the front lines of combat. Others perform manual labor, such as digging trenches, working in the kitchen, or carrying food, ammunition, or other supplies, often for long distances. Still others, primarily female children and adolescents, are reduced to sexual servants for military and rebel leaders” (Hill 1).
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.
Many child soldiers willingly join the armed forces. In their eyes, it is to follow in their families footsteps. In “ Child Soldier.Some words don't belong together.” It states that, “Children join for ideological reasons or to avenge the death of a family member,” Also, “Contrary to popular belief, a large portion of child soldiers volunteer,” And finally, “ did not turn them away when they came eager to fight,” However, children join willingly to avenge the death of a family member. Children would do anything to get revenge or save their family. Thus, makes them dangerous because they won't stop until they succeed in what they set out to do.
“Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults” (“Child Soldiers” 1). This quotation by Olara Otunnu explains that children are forced into becoming weapons of war. Children under 18 years old are being recruited into the army because of poverty issues, multiple economic problems, and the qualities of children, however, many organizations are trying to implement ways to stop the human rights violation.
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.
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.
They are called child soldiers, boys and girls under the age of 18 used by rebel groups and governments. The UNICEF estimated more than 300,000 children are involved in 30 conflicts worldwide. There is a rising controversy over the fate of child soldiers: should child soldiers be prosecuted for the misdeeds?
says www.child-soldiers.org and also say, Such traumatic events can disrupt children’s development, staying with them for the rest of their lives.” Adult soldiers after the war can suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and so can the former child soldier which will make the rest of their life hard. Not only have the kids been taught and forced to kill but were under the influence of drugs making them wanting to kill. Commanders gave them drugs so kids could be
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.
People in our society should question the world they live in and what damages they have caused, like forcing a child under the age of 18 to become a soldier. This has occurred in places where there are groups of soldiers looking for child's and forcing them into being a young soldier, due to the way their laws are formed, but with rehabilitation, they can overcome their worst nightmare that has become a reality and lives their lives the way it should have been since the beginning of their youth. In my point of view, we should give these child soldiers amnesty. These children are considered the perfect weapon in battle. Being forced to fight at such a young age and to “commit heinous atrocities, they are undoubtedly victims of these conflicts (Gordon, Par. 2).”