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The issue with child soldiers
The issue with child soldiers
Child soldiers are unfortunately still being used in many countries all over the world today
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Coltan is a tantalum-bearing ore that is very rare, valuable and highly sought all over the world (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). Tantalum has double the density of steel and is extremely resistant to heat and corrosion (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). In the majority of high-tech electronics such as computers, mobile phones, and game consoles, it is used as capacitors or super-alloys to conduct electric charges in these electronic equipments (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 20). Almost a decade ago, Australia was the leading country responsible for 60% of the world’s tantalum production (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). However, in 2008, the largest Australian tantalum producer called Talison, faced a financial crisis and suffered a downfall in the global market (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 20). In Canada, only 4% of Canadian tantalum is produced, although this was back in 2001 and since then, Canada’s global market share of tantalum production has been gradually falling (Hayes & Burge 2003: 17). After Australia’s drastic fall in the production of tantalum, Central Africa became the largest supplier of tantalum in the world and is expected to continue with being the lead supplier for this mineral in the future (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 21). There is no central market for tantalum and all of the largest tantalum mines are sold in advance with fixed price contracts (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). Therefore, it is very common for dealers to set the prices on an individual transaction basis (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). The demand for tantalum has been increasing over the last 10-15 years especially with the rapid technological advancements making it very high in economic importance (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 21). Thus, social, political and environmental issues and consid... ... middle of paper ... ...ards from high exposures of toxins from the minerals that are mined. (World Vision 2013: 5). As well, recruitment of children in both regular armies and militias has been related to the conflict in Congo with children as young as eight years old becoming soldiers of war (Hayes & Burge 2003: 30-31). These child soldiers usually start as runners, bodyguards, porters, or spies and later on learn to handle weapons and serve in combat (Hayes & Burge 2003: 31). Human rights violations also extend to women and girls as young as five years old who are sexually assaulted, gang raped, sold into sex slavery, have their genitals mutilated and murdered (Hayes & Burge 2003: 30). Despite the United Nations and international aid agencies trying to put an end to human rights violations, child and human exploitation is still a huge ethical concern in the DRC (Hayes & Burge 2003: 32).
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
“Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. 1 June 2000. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
...be seen as an entity that promotes vile results. However, it is imperative to understand that globalization is multilayered and difficult to fully understand. In the case of child soldiers, globalization has played a pertinent role in unifying international organizations in hopes of finding a solution to this “phenomenon”. On the other hand, although certain international organizations such as United Nations have had a prominent role in advocating against child soldiery, for the following reasons, its attempts are insufficient: it lacks the ability to enforce sanctions established within the international community and it does not do enough to recognize the political, social and economic inequalities that are prevalent in most of these fragile states. Therefore, child soldiery, cannot be eradicated until these issues are dealt with on a collective global scale.
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Ever since silver has entered the world of the global market it has changed the
The excitement for mining and excavating for minerals was sparked in prospectors and people looking for an easy way of profit in the 60’s.This second gold rush of speaks, despite most of the minerals they were after was more on the lines of copper, nickel, iron and the like, brought high hopes of those wanting to get rich fast. Though thousands had hope in making money from mining on their own, many excavators found little gold on their own efforts. Most needed to actually find work in mines. But, they almost got something even better. The v...
While some children and adults are able to escape the wrath of the LRA, many are hurt, persecuted and forgotten about every year, by the group’s tactics. Children are taken during raids in villages near the borders of Uganda, Sudan, Congo, and the Central African Republic. The men are usually killed and the women flee, are killed, or trafficked. These raids are usually carried out by “child soldiers much younger than their victims,” where they are forced to kill possible relatives and kidnap other children. The male children that are taken are usually forc...
In chapter 8 of Global Issues, Local Arguments, June Johnson exposes the concept that women are being used as a tactic and war as well as being sexually abused. In “Defending Human Rights: Human Trafficking, Forced Child Labor, and Rape as a Weapon of War, (384-439)”developing countries women are being treated unfairly as well having little say in the government leading to a delay in fixing the issue. Johnson also includes “Ten Radical Acts for Congo the New Year (434-41).” These issues were caused by the end of slavery and thus leading to people needing a new source of workers. The effects of the Ill treatment consist of children and women dying. Many stake holders to fixing the problem is to involve the women in the government. Unless stakeholders
Rio Tinto has the people, the capabilities and the resources to apply a world’s hunger for minerals and metals that are used in the everyday life, in the diverse of products – for the mobile phones to cars.
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.
War affects every aspect of a child 's development. Children affected by armed conflict can be injured or killed, uprooted from their homes and communities, internally displaced or refugees, orphaned or separated from their parents and families, subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation, victims of trauma as a result of being exposed to violence, deprived of education and recreation, at risk of becoming child soldiers (unknown
“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.
Every year an estimation of child soldiers is about 300,000. Child soldiers are another form of human trafficking or in other words modern day slavery. A child soldier is any child under the age of eighteen who is a part of any armed grouped. Children, who are poor, have limited access to education or separated are most likely to be abducted. Both girls and boys as young as age seven are forced into child soldiers. Young girls and women are raped by the soldiers and if they refuse they are killed instantly. Once recruited, child soldiers serve as spies, cooks, messengers, and guards. Children are easily targeted because they can easily be manipulated especially when drugs are being
Global demand and Supply. Cobalt which is considered a ‘technology enabling’ substance has maintained a solid rate of growth in demand, and is sustaining a CAGR of >5% and this growth rate is likely to be sustained or even increased in the foreseeable future, driven largely by increased demand for cobalt in rechargeable batteries (Li-ion systems particularly) and superalloys for aerospace applications. Over the past 15 years, there have been two major shifts in cobalt demand patterns. The first one being the shift in demand from the USA and Western Europe to Asia in 2002 and the second one being the increase in demand caused by increases in chemical applications, most notably rechargeable batteries and catalysts. An estimate in 2014 indicated