Child Soldiers: A Foreign Policy Approach

The use of child soldiers have become a normal contribution to armies, especially in countries such as Africa. Although, countries such as Afghanistan, India, and Libya have been using child soldiers since 2011. According to “Children in Conflict: Child Soldiers,” there has been 36 countries involved since 1998. Something needs to be done about this issue due to the fact that thousands of

Recently, two million children have died over the past ten years due to becoming a child soldier. A huge deplorable development that has extended recently is the increase of child soldiers. Children are constantly being used as soldiers for various reasons. In some countries, there are more child soldiers than they are adults because children are more compliant. Children have been exploited as soldiers because they are being recruited to do a violent action, it is difficult for them to, later on, assimilate back to their lives, and child soldiers are regularly used in developing countries.

“I would like to give you a message, please do your best to tell the world what is happening to us, the children. So that other children do not have to pass through this violence.”

Child Soldiers is a major global issue which is affecting todays 21st century. Many Countries around the world are illegally operating child soldiers such as Burma and Sierra Leone currently there is a crisis as many more children are being subject to this cruel act. Many world media and Non-governmental organisations such as the guardian and Human rights watch have reported thousands of child soldiers in Myanmar Burma. The Convention on the rights of a child and the Universal declaration of human rights strictly prohibits children in armed conflict further the United Nations further prohibits children in armed conflicts. The International Criminal Court has previously dealt with Thomas Labunga a leader of the liberation forces of the Congo whom used children as young as 10 in his military . However these measures have not been effective as there are still children in conflict due to state sovereignty.

Poverty is a bad thing, and according to dosomething.org, over 3 billion people in our world live on less than 2.50 dollars a day, that is 900 dollars yearly, which is 21, 641 dollars less than the US poverty line. Of these 3 billion people sadly 1 billion children. (Do Something.org 2015) If anyone were to go outside a major city, or volunteer at a shelter, your eyes would certainly be open to this saddening extreme. No one wants to be in poverty, so many families find jobs to get more income to try to escape their conditions. With many people living in war-torn areas, many families are opting to fight in wars, which also means enlisting small children as well. This is one of the many reasons there are child soldiers. The main reasons children

Child soldiers should receive amnesty Amnesty is freedom from prosecution,when they are forgiven of what they did during war time. Overall it becomes clear that they do awful terrible things such as killing people,setting up an ambush and more. But most of the time they are taken from their families, brainwashed, drugged and forced to kill. Also punishing the child soldiers makes it easier for the commander, and it ruins and takes away their life while in the war and after the war, if they get out.

The stakes are high, and the risks are obvious. We must remember that we are dealing with lives of children, not hardened criminals. Child soldiers and previous ones have a lot on their shoulders and by granting them amnesty we will be able to provide a better future for them. Many countries have participated in committing the atrocious crime of using children to fight in wars as part of their armies, some of them being Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Uganda and many others. Many people believe that previous child soldiers should be put through court to be convicted of the war crimes that they committed, but this often leads to time in prison and hard feelings of violence towards the government. There is nothing for these children in jail. They simply cannot thrive in that ghastly environment and it should be a crime to stop them right in the middle of their development. We must grant these children amnesty because what they did was only to survive and we can easily adjust them to a new life by providing them with proper education.

The issue of child soldiery is a social issue that plagues society on a global scale. For instance, The Global Report 2008 which was edited by UNICEF and Child Soldiers Global Institution reported that 19 countries and territories employed children in government forces as well as non-state armed groups. Some countries include Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, and Somalia (Deak, 2013, p. 1). It is impossible to state the exact number of child soldiers around the world; however, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations estimate that that there are about 250,000 to 300,000 child soldiers (Szijj, 2010, p.4) It is evident that that child soldiery is an epidemic thus, I will investigate what social and political factors are responsible

One injustice facing the world today is the use of child soldiers. According to child-soldiers.org, a child soldier is “any person below eighteen years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity…” Child soldiers do not only include the combatants. There are also child soldiers in noncombatant positions. The most dreadful injustice is having child soldiers, because of the amount of children involved, the recruitment they face, their war experiences, and post battle feelings or events.

Many countries are now recruiting children to join their forces. It is mostly countries in Southern Africa that are using these tactics. Child soldiers have been around for many years, but the problems it is causing is just now coming to the attention of government officials.

Did you know in war torn countries millions of kids are being kidnapped and ripped away from their families by terrorist leaders to fight? Hundreds of kids each day are being torn away from their homes and the people they love. The kids are forced to fight for terrorist groups and are brainwashed,with drugs and alcohol, to believe it's the right thing to do.Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are forced and brainwashed into violent crimes.

A. Over 250,000 children are being used as soldiers for warfare. Many of them are under the age of 18, the minimum age for recruitment of soldiers. Over 20,000 children were abducted from their families and communities. There are still many groups yet to be known. As a child soldier, you are forced to torture others, be tortured, and be sexually assaulted. Even as normal children, they are too immature to realize the rights and wrongs of their actions; therefore they are easier to manipulate. In these armies and conflicts, over 2 million children have died, 4-5 million are left disabled, and 12 million are left homeless and separated from their families. Millions of these children have been abducted or have joined for the promise of food and shelter/protection.

Am here to talking about child soldiers how do they get the child soldiers hear let me tell you how they get them they kidnap them when they a little kid like ages around 7 to 9 and the people train them for war they train to kill other people some of the kids do drugs. Children are more easily manipulated than adult fighters. Many children will fight on the frontlines. Not all fight, they may be given jobs such as couriers. Girls are often forced into sexual slavery. Many are recruited by force stolen from their families and forced to fight. In some cases children are made to kill their relatives so they can never return home. Others join voluntarily, driven by poverty and the hope of a regular meal. These child soldiers are

I firmly believe that using child soldiers in a war is wrong. Every kid deserves a childhood and to be able to have fun while they can. Also with how much drugs child soldiers are administered they can become easily addicted to hard drugs at a young age. People use child soldiers b/c there is never a shortage of children and they will just go kidnap more. It’s sad to see how the world has become. Drugging kids to make them do your bidding is just wrong. These young children are trained in combat and given a gun. If they do not do something right they get beaten bloody and have to try again. Child soldiers are slaves to a sick minded government that cares about no one but themselves not the people of the country. If a child soldier is abducted

American soldiers in a study completed in 2009, have a lifetime rate for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ranging from 10 to 31%, when observing veterans from the Vietnam War as well as Iraq and Afghanistan (Holdeman 2009). These are men and women who are over the age of 18 that still experience flashbacks from, for example, gruesome sights during battle. Children involved in armed conflict also get PTSD, traumatized by the violence that waned on their countries. It is more than that. Julia Dickson-Gõmez, a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, conducted a study on the longevity impacts of being a guerrilla soldier, comparing adult and children soldiers. In her research, it was argued that “traumatic experiences were even more