Child soldiers are a big problem in countries around the world. Just because it is not a problem in our country we should still be informed about it. Child soldiers are victims not criminals. Kids do not know what life is like here in America, or life in other countries. They think it is normal to fight in the military at a very young age. The military leaders brainwash the kids, kids are forced to fight and girls are getting used by the members. People brainwash the children at a very young age into think that it is an honor to fight in the military. Imagine you growing up and seeing videos in the center of the town about joining and seeing people get terrorized for not joining. According to an article, “The Challenges of the African Criminal Court in Prosecuting Child Soldiers”, “Kids are brainwashed.” This evidence tells you that they make the kids think that what they are doing is right but it’s really not. They use many mechanisms to brainwash the children. They often drug them using types of alcohol, and a mix of gunpowder and cocain. The next step is to bring them into a small area packed with children. They then show the innocent kids videos of live or …show more content…
Another thing that the article Armed & Underage stated that many groups use girls as cooks and messengers. Girls are sometimes sexually abused as well. This shows that these kids are not around positive examples and this should not be normal for any child. They already go through enough with the war and it would be so terrible for them to be treated as criminals. You may say that the parents decide and they may discuss it with their kids but Armed & Underage told us that Kids are sold by parents to get money for food and other essentials that are necessary for living a healthy life, this evidence supports the fact that parents do it out of survival and not because that’s what they think is
They include messengers, porters, spies, and sex slaves. So great is the diversity of tasks that many advocates now prefer the less punchy but more accurate term, children associated with fighting forces.” (Gates para 5) Why should an undereducated child who hasn’t committed any crimes besides being involved in a war that they didn’t want to fight be prosecuted for anything. Another example of how some child soldiers aren’t killers comes from an article titled “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety.” this article says that not all child soldiers murder but some cook or as said in the article “Most girls are forcibly abducted and given roles as cooks, porters, spies, “wives”, and in combat, says Susan McKay of the University of Wyoming, who has interviewed girl soldiers throughout central Africa.” (Leahy para 10) clearly not all children in combat have committed crimes but are rather victims and shouldn’t be prosecuted for being in the military but should be helped and given a second chance at their
When I was six years old my mother asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I told her with a straight face “a paleontologist” at that age I knew how to spell and pronounce all the scientific names for almost every known species of dinosaur at the time and I also knew their feeding habits, habitats, period they inhabited. Fast Forward five years later my career goal had changed to a herpetologist, I envisioned myself treating amphibians and reptiles while performing zoonotic as well as conservative research. From an early age I was fascinated with animals and knew I wanted my future occupation to be involved with them but it wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I was introduced to the possibility of veterinary medicine.
First of all, the children are being used for war crimes and they are underaged. When you join the military you have to be over or right at a certain age. When the military needed men they went to children and the government had enforced a statement saying “15 is considered too young to fight.”(7) Also, if children are too young to fight then they are also “considered too young to be held criminally responsible for serious violations.” (7) In the article “Armed and Underaged” by Jeffrey Gettleman, a reporter talked to a young boy , age 12, Awil. Awil told the reporter that he “enjoys the gun.”(6) Meaning that he knows nothing else about playing with his friends or anything. He has grown up all his life with a gun around. If the children
When the Europeans arrived in the Americas they were looking for riches, spices, and new trade routes to India. When they found this new world and the Native Americans that lived there, they deliberately mistreated them. Looked at as obstructions, the Natives were driven from their land and homes and pushed west. Europeans that encountered the Native Americans had different ideas about them depending on their political and religious beliefs but none were positive. Those ideas ranged from pity for them as non-Christians to be converted (Doc. A2) and treated as children to a lower status of human to be taken advantage of for profits. The Natives were forced to mine precious metals, and farm sugar cane and tobacco. They were not viewed or treated as equal persons. They were considered part of the wild land to be conquered, enslaved, killed, and beaten into cooperation.
First off, child soldiers are held against their will to do dangerous tasks that they have no say in. In an article interviewing Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier, he states, "Somebody being shot in front of you, or you yourself shooting somebody became just like drinking a glass of water. Children who refused to fight, kill or showed any weakness were ruthlessly dealt with.”
These kids are in no condition for fighting in armed rebel groups but the numbers of these kids are starting to go up. “Over 8,000 children are fighting in armed rebel groups, battling the U.S-backed government.” They are taught to kill and are forced to think that killing is a good thing, plus, the guns they are supposed to use are even heavier than most of these kids, so that clearly shows they shouldn't be using them. These child soldiers need to be put in rehabilitation instead of being put in prison, they are being forced to take drugs, they are brainwashed into thinking
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.
Over the last ten years, at least over two million children are forcibly serving in the military, with them only being 10 years old or younger. Another conflict is that child soldiers are being isolated in many parts of africa, and are being used by armed groups as an ongoing conflicts like south asia, asia, and the middle east. Some governments have also recruited children under the age of 18 into their armed forces. One of their biggest challenges is to have freedom in their own hands without having to break the law.
Since they may be ten or even younger when they join the army they would probably have very little education so they would not be able to support themselves. They are given drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol and can become addicted to them. The drugs changes their behavior and makes it easier to convince them to fight and kill even on the front line. With the addition of the drugs they may even if slowly begin to surely enjoy killing others. Additionally, a girl that is used as a child soldier is subject to other abuse such as rape.
Overall, this subject is a huge part of politics today and should be taken seriously by people everywhere. Child soldiers should be given amnesty for their crimes because they were forced to fight in wars that were not theirs. Opposition to this argument would say that they are the perpetrators of these awful war crimes. This is false because they are forced to do these things even of they don’t want to. Keep this in mind next time you hear about a child soldier being arrested
These children basically only have the choice to either die or kill. In the article “Summative Essay; Child Soldiers Victim or Perpetrators” the author shows, “From the drugs to the alcohol, these children are placed under horrific circumstances which are preposterous. They kill to stay alive and those who try to escape are killed.” This is important to notice because this proves these kids don't have a choice besides kill or be killed, they have no other
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
Children all across world are being exploited as child soldiers. Everyday kids younger the age of 10 are putting their lives on the line mostly by force. ¨Over the last ten years, two million children have been killed in conflict. Over one million have been orphaned, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma.¨(Children In Conflict). A child soldier is a child with armed forces; they’re trained to fight, cook, be porters, messengers, informant spies, etc. Countries all across the world have been using children to fight, places like the United Kingdom, Africa, and Asia lean on children to do their dirty work regardless of what laws are put into place for recruitment age.
“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.
hold her back, she still lives her life and does what is best for Pearl. Hester becomes sought after