Children As Soldiers In War

For years the use of children in both conflict between states and civil war has been evident, children are being forced by bad people and throughout their false promises. Even this getting too far people don’t know what to do they’re afraid to defend themselves because they know what the commanders could do to them. They think they don’t have a way out. And even the parents are giving out their own children because they

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.

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.

For years children are being forced by commanders into being a soldier, this is due to conflicts between states and civil wars. Some children are even under 10 years old when they are being forced to serve, despite this, in the last 10 years, at least 10 million children are being killed or left seriously injured. Some children are willingly volunteer themselves, as they believe it would be giving some form of income and security. At least 10 or 30% of soldiers are reported to be girls, they are often used for fighting, many of them are abducted or recruited by the force.

Greater attention and action against the worldwide use of child soldiers need to be addressed by the world community because children are being forced out of their homes, traumatized by all of the killings and dying surrounding them and they are being starved and beaten. Today, there are thousands of children involved in these armed jobs all around the world. There is an estimated 3,000 children, many under 16, including 500 girls in the army. (“Child Soldiers”)

They carry messages to different camps and spy on government forces. Unfortunately, numerous children are caught while on the job. Others surrender to the government and then are detained for working for a rebel group, instead of being integrated back into a community. One of the major jobs of a child soldier is being a troop. When armies recruit children, they make sure they are able to find the most children in the most vulnerable places (Mancini 30). Ninety percent of the Lord’s Resistance Army are children (Mancini). Kids are sometimes forced to kill a family member or watch them be killed. Most younger children are recruited as suicide bombers. Children do not get stopped by armed forces when they run around a community. Therefore, they are able to bring out any sort of attack ( Mancini 21). Children recruited as suicide bombers are easily influenced into thinking that after they carry out their mission, they will go to heaven (25). One-third of child troops in the world are girls (56). When girls are exposed to killing family members and abducting other children, their girlhood is warped and relationships towards people change dramatically (58). On the other hand, girls may experience pleasure while battling on the front line because they finally feel equal to men. The girls that are not fighting on the battlefield are the “wives.” They are the children that are raped and prematurely give birth to kids whose

The amount of child soldiers there are is extreme, almost unbelievable. There are “Globally an estimated 300,000 children that serve not only as combatants, but also medics, laborers, cooks,

It is common for child soldiers had no choice in joining war efforts. Often child are kidnapped and forced into the war: “It is estimated that over the last 15 years 10,000 children have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) around Gula in northern Uganda, alone” (Children in Conflict). In places where poverty is high parents may send their children into the war in exchange for food or monetary value (Children as Soldiers). During Hitler’s reign, young boys were forced to attend Hitler Youth: “Membership in the State Youth becomes mandatory. The boys in Werner’s kameradschaften are taught parade maneuvers and quizzed on fitness standards and required to run sixty meters in twelve seconds. Everything is glory and country and competition and sacrifice” (Doerr 62). Children in wars are also subjected to sexual abuse from adult soldiers around them. The emotional impact from the sexual abuse and the highly dangerous situations they are placed in may last for the rest of their lives (Child Soldier 46). The use of child soldiers has been banned since 2000 when the United Nations adopted a protocol stating that the forced recruitment of children under 18 for armed conflict is illegal. More than 110 countries have ratified this protocol, but it continues to be an issue around the world (Facts About Child

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.

Throughout the course of history, children have been used to do a variety of tasks, from watching their brothers and sisters at home to fighting in wars. Although it seems surprising and unheard of, it is estimated that there are as many as 300,000 child soldiers in the world today. These statistics may seem alarming to you, but that is just a fraction of how many children in general are being exploited as we speak.

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.

The former President of the Uganda People 's Congress, Olara Otunnu, viewed the extensive use of child soldiers as “compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults,” (“Olara Otunnu, Advocate for Children 's Rights”). Otunnu elaborates how children are unable to show fear or any other emotion that defines them as human, because they are forced to follow what their capturers tell them to do. Children in armed conflicts are captured to be manipulated and brainwashed into doing inhumane actions and are used as objects rather than being children. The most well-known country to adapt the idea of child soldiers is Uganda in South Africa. Child soldiers are individuals under the age of eighteen that are in armed forces and held captive as soldiers or any other useful jobs. Both boys and girls play a role in the use of child soldiers, as girls are commonly used as sex slaves, while most boys are used as soldiers. The use of child soldiers violates human rights, such as Article four, five, twelve and twenty-five from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The violations of human rights demonstrate how children are used as objects rather than human beings. Children are forced to become soldiers or slaves and once captured, they have no right to defend themselves and escape.

Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals. Since the 1970s a number of international conventions have come into effect that try to limit the participation of children in armed conflicts, nevertheless the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reports that the use of children in military forces, and