Child Soldiers Research Paper

At a young age it’s difficult to grasp the concept of death, but as time passes, the youth turn into the old and the old turn into the deceased. Whether people like it or not, death plays a role in their lives and it’s something no one can escape. Child soldiers are forced to kill, and if they don’t then they too are killed. Young children are trained into fierce warriors every day, and stopping this action has proven to be difficult. It can be argued from a recruiter that brings in children that children are disposable, easy to train, and almost infinite. Most of these kids never receive a chance to do what they want in life, furthermore it seems like children, especially in Africa, are being picked off the streets they’re grapes on a grapevine. The International Justice System appeals to cases like this everyday, as it can be a struggle to understand if a child is truly remorseful, and if they deserve amnesty. Children who are forced into crime should be given a chance to redeem themselves, as they generally have no intention to cause harm.

Children aren’t mature enough to make life or death decisions. All child soldiers should have a chance to be forgiven. “Others enlist ‘voluntarily’, usually because they see few alternatives.” ("From Cradle to War." Amnesty International. Amnesty International USA, Web. 3 May 2016.) Children aren’t wise enough to make the decision, and deserve a chance to be forgiven, just like an immigrant has a chance to become a citizen. And even though once someone is killed, they are permanently dead, the children who kill don’t really know what they’re

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

Are you aware that right now, at this very moment, there is a group of young boys ages 8-13 who are clenching a gun being ordered to kill against their will? It’s understood that others opinions about the dangers of child soldiers being free are only because they don’t want to risk anything but, isn’t life all about taking risks? You risk your life leaving the house, and breathing. Also, countries should not prosecute child soldiers for the crimes they committed during wartime. There also should not be an international minimum age of criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Here are three reasons why they should not be prosecuted or held responsible. Also that there should not be an age limit. One. Children are afraid, young, and clueless. Two. Children are 99.99% of the time drugged, forced, and brainwashed. “Children are often brainwashed and drugged before they are forced to fight. Their vulnerability can allow warlords to make them into cold-blooded killers” (O'Neill 1 ). Three. Children are independent, lonesome, and they want/need a family. One that gives them love.

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.

War, in and of itself, is an atrocity, but it becomes even more abhorrent when children are pulled into the conflict. Unfortunately, some military groups find children useful in the war effort. The wars these children are forced to be part of often leave wounds--both psychological and physical, but these kids can be healed, at least to an extent, and rehabilitated. Children are often used in war because it is easy and efficient to use them as compared to their adult counterparts. For one, children are easy to control, coerce, and indoctrinate.

A lot of the children interviewed within the first chapter of Peter W. Singer’s book Children at War are under the age of 12. They speak of torturing people in the most horrific of ways. Such as when joining the paramilitaries, A., age twelve, states that the first thing they make you do is kill someone. A random person is picked for the recruits to chop off his hands and arms. It is important to realize however, that not all of these child soldiers are as young as 7. Singer explains that a “A ‘child soldier’ is generally defined (under both international law and common practice) as any person under eighteen years of age who is engaged in deadly combat or combat support as part of an armed force or group.” What is most horrendous is

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.”

Imagine being taken from your house and your family and being forced to fight in a war. This is what some child soldiers have to go through. Not to mention after they are taken they have to risk their lives and be forced to kill. Some are even as young as 5. Child soldiers should receive amnesty if they were young when they were taken, were forced, and show remorse after they were rescued and understand what they did.

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.

My first piece of evidence comes from debatewise. According to someone on debatewise “Child soldiers rarely have the same understanding of their decisions and actions as adults and therefore should not be held responsible for their actions.” Why should these kids be held responsible? They don't even understand what adults do. These kids are too young to understand the consequences of their actions. my next piece of evidence comes from the article armed and underage. According to armed and underage “These kids can be so easily brainwashed” How are you suppose to be aware of what you're doing when you have been brainwashed? It is not child soldiers fault for these crimes if they were not fully capable of understanding what they were doing because they were brainwashed. Now for my last piece of evidence which comes from a summative essay. According to a summative essay on child soldiers “They lack the mental maturity and judgement to express consent or to fully understand the implications of their actions.” Like I said before, these child soldiers are not mentally capable of understanding the consequences of their actions. They may not fully understand the meaning of death. That is the evidence I have found for this idea. Now some of you people out there may be thinking they at least know bad from wrong. Well let me tell you, when you're young, scared, and confused from being

When dragged into war, many children and their families are in poverty, because of the effects of the war and, in some countries’ cases, simply because of the life they have always lived. Or, because of the poverty they are in, they choose to join the military in order to be fed, given a place to sleep, and provided with easier access to water. In both cases, once the war is over, they remain in the same poor state they were in when they started, or likely even worse. Also, during the fighting, once the kids were drugged, they continued to rely on their commanders for drugs. And, because of the addiction they gained, they are now facing even more health dangers than just having the drugs alone. Child Soldiers--Victims or Perpetrators? states, ¨...rehabilitation should be the aim and not punishment. The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reconciliation program, often abbreviated TTR and DDR, are far better ways of helping children recover and reintegrate back into society and out of war.¨ The article goes on to describe the problems with prosecution. It reveals that the prosecution process can be drawn from a lack of evidence and is sometimes rather selective. Thus, it would be far more effective and a better solution to give child soldiers war relief rather than be

"Somebody being shot in front of you, or you yourself shooting somebody became just like drinking a glass of water." -Ishmael Beah. Ishmael has lived most of his childhood being a child soldier. Everywhere he goes there’s killing, as he is also forced to be doing the killing. Ishmael was only twelve years old when he was forced to join the army. Going through all the suffering he has gone through, soon he got used to the feeling, changing him. After getting forced to commit murder, it became a daily routine for him. Ishmael's situation is common throughout the world, mainly in Africa, even today. Child soldiers don’t join the army without a justified reason, and that’s something some people don’t understand. Currently there

More often than not, children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol. The drugs and alcohol make the children become more compliant, enabling them to commit atrocities which they never would have before.” This shows that the drugs and alcohol that are being given to the child soldiers are helping the leader brainwash them to make them think that committing horrible crimes is a good thing to do. Since the child soldiers are on drugs and alcohol, they make poor decisions of killing innocent people without even knowing they are doing it. Some may argue that the children can refuse the drugs, but when you are living in a tragic life of your friends and family dying beside you on the battlefield, why would you want to have a conscious mind when you could take a drug to forget all about

Around 120,000 adolescent children are now engaged in conflicts throughout Africa (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 4). In Sudan, for instance, thousands of children, some as young as 12, were recruited against their will into separatist and government groups (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 5). Thousands more children have been enlisted into the armed forces throughout Asia and the Pacific. The most significant numbers are in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and recently, Cambodia. Myanmar, a country in Asia, has some of the most child soldiers throughout the world, with children being recruited into both non-government and government armed forces (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 6). The number of child soldiers has been decreasing annually, but these children are still being taken against their will.