A highly debated topic amongst society is whether or not child soldiers should be considered as victims or criminals. There are children in this world that don’t get to experience the wonders of growing up. They are trained to hold a gun and shoot a man with no second thoughts, and if they don’t obey there are serious consequences, one being death. These children are bribed to become a soldier with money and food, sometimes they have to accept in order for their family to be fed. Child soldiers should be treated like victims because they are brainwashed into thinking that killing people is okay, the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15 is a war crime, and when they are recruited they are treated very poorly and often given the …show more content…
unfavorable jobs. Child soldiers are in fact brainwashed into thinking that killing people is okay.
Sometimes they aren’t even affected by shooting someone, they don’t have time to second guess their decisions. According to an article called, Child Soldiers: If not Prosecution, Then What?, “The child soldiers are so overwhelmed that they did not know the difference between right and wrong.” The children don’t even know that killing somebody is wrong, they just obey their commander. They are forced to do things that they might not want to do, but if they don’t obey their commander they will be severely punished. Some people may think that it is their choice to obey their commanders and do whatever they say, but it turns out that the reasons why they will follow their commander are, they are brainwashed, they were bribed, or they could be punished for not obeying. Another significant reason why child soldiers should be considered as victims is, a lot of the children's commanders illegally recruit the children when they are under the age of …show more content…
15. The recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15 is indeed a war crime that should be taken more seriously. Children should be considered as victims because sometimes they are forced to become child soldiers, so it isn’t their fault if they become a child soldier. According to an article called, Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes?, “IHL’S recognition that recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15 was a war crime.” IHL stands for “International Humanitarian Law” and they handle human rights and inhumane treatment. Some of the children were forced to become child soldiers, it wasn’t their illegal action. One of the main reasons they made this a rule was because children under the age of 15 don’t have fully developed brains so they sometimes won’t know the difference between right and wrong. There is a point to be made that some children actually choose to become a soldier and they know the difference between right and wrong, they just think that killing is the right thing to do. Even so, the evidence is clear that all of the child soldiers under the age of 15 are in fact recruited illegally. Another compelling reason why child soldiers should be considered as victims is, when they are recruited they are treated with little respect and given the dirtiest jobs When children are recruited to become a child soldier they are often treated very poorly and receive the unfavorable jobs.
Children definitely play the victim part in this because they are often punished harshly if they don’t do something right or they are given the worst jobs. According to an article called, The Challenges of the African Criminal Court in Prosecuting Child Soldiers, “ Military commanders encourage to delegate the ‘dirtiest’ orders to child soldiers. “ The commanders of the children often deal out the most unfortunate jobs to the children like, performing an execution, or being a suicide bomber or even watching an execution to see how it’s performed. To be fair, there are circumstances where children choose to do these jobs or want to do them. It is only under those circumstances, however children still should never be given the job of performing an execution or being a suicide bomber. All of these reasons explain the children should not be prosecuted and should be treated like
victims. Overall it becomes clear that there is enough evidence to say that child soldiers should be considered as victims and not criminals. All three reasons make very good points on why the children aren’t at fault for this terrible crime that is going on in some countries. The children are brainwashed into thinking that killing people is okay, the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15 is a war crime, and when they are recruited they are treated poorly and often given unfavorable jobs. Sometimes children want to become soldiers or commit crimes that they may be prosecuted for, but in the end most of the children don’t want to become soldiers and forced to commit awful crimes. Ultimately, children are the victims when you consider all of the evidence stated and the fact that innocent children are brainwashed to think that killing is okay.
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 ...
The first reason these kids shouldn’t be prosecuted or punished in any way is because it wasn’t their choice to be a soldier to begin with. According to Child Soldiers, Prosecution, most kids were forced to fight and had no choice of weather to enlist or not. There are about 200,000 child soldiers worldwide state's Armed and Underage, (Gettleman) and these kids are doing things their adolescent brains
...t they are easy to access; they are low cost, and easy to manipulate. When children are on the battlefield fighting for their lives, they become more violent and tend to do more killing than usual, raping girls, and torturing others. The armies, militia, and rebel groups recruit the children and separate the community to resist the conscription. The child is being forced to commit murder and turn against their family and friends because this proves that the child is recognized and implicated in the violence they have created. Child soldiers are known to be criminals, traitors, or even terrorists, so they would be held in military prisons. When either girl or boys are captured they go through abusive interrogation procedure, torture, isolations, rape, and death threats. These are the consequences of children being on the battlefield and shortly after being captured.
After achieving economic dominance following the events of World War II, the United States and its allies in Europe began to spread their influence. Commonly referred to as “the West”, these nations impacted people all over the world through music, propaganda, and relief efforts. The United States, as a free superpower, is morally obligated to promote democracy around the world (Evinger and Montanez-Muhinda). This can easily be observed in the stories of two children, Mariatu Kamara and Ishmael Beah, whose lives are changed by a brutal civil war. Despite playing a large role in both tales, the effects of western world are much more prevalent and impactful in A Long Way Gone than in The Bite of the Mango.
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).
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
Parallel to the post World War II developments of IHL, rape incrementally gained recognition as an international crime, including as a crime against humanity. Rape was accepted as an express form of crimes against humanity via the incorporation of international
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.
Shockingly, many of them have often been spotted carrying very sophisticated weapons, and many weapons that can take down planes. child soldier is detrimental to peace and to children who are the future (British Job p6). most people are wondering why children are used as soldiers. the most basic reason is children are more obedient than adults, they can almost carry out every order from their commander.... ...
“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.
From the time that they’re children, American citizens are taught to associate the words “...Liberty and Justice for all,” with their country. However, there’s at least one group of people being greatly deprived of justice: survivors of rape. It comes as no surprise that approximately sixty-eight percent of rapes are not reported in a country where approximately ninety-eight percent of rapists are never jailed (Rape - Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes). Victims of this horrible crime are going through possibly the worst trauma of their lives, so it’s very difficult for them to want to come forward to law enforcement and somewhat have to relive their trauma, especially given the previous statistics. Perhaps one of the greatest contributors to these horrifying statistics, therefore, a reason rape survivors are unlikely to come forward, is the backlog of things called rape kits that many jurisdictions in the United States currently have.
Child Soldiers have commited horrible crimes under the fear of death from their own groups. Child soldiers and their prosecution is a big debate going on right now. Should they be prosecuted you tell me? In my opinion child soldiers should not be prosecuted as criminals will not stop if they arrested and the children didn’t have control over their actions. Child soldiers shouldn’t be prosecuted People like the UN are only going to politely tell them to stop what they're doing.
Is anyone truly a stranger to nightmares? Has anyone not woken up in a feverish sweat with a racing pulse or pounding heart? Whose eyes have never wildly searched their room for the phantoms of a dream? Now, what if the familiar consolation of learning it was all in your head never came? How do you wake up from a nightmare that is, in fact, a reality? I think I’m getting ahead of myself. What I mean to say is, I was raped, and rape is a nightmare.
At the beginning of researching, I was really unsure what I thought about this whole topic. It was the first time ever thinking about it. Know, doing a lot of research, I think that child soldiers should not be called criminals, they should be victims. I saw a lot of information about kids being forced to kill their best friends. According to TRTWORLD article, "I was forced literally to kill my best friend as an initiation process into the army," a former child soldier from Democratic Republic of Congo Michel Chikwanine told The WorldPost.
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.