Recruitment of Child Soldiers Essay

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

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

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.

Children in US are perceived as the next generation, the future per say. We have multiple laws across the country to punish many ways of what we call is child abuse. While some may argue more could be done, I feel the intention to protect the children in this country is not questionable for most people. While reading these articles about children soldiers, one thing is clear: poverty and education seems to be the common ground why children are either forced, or willingly join an army.

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.

Child soldiers were kids that were forced to kill americans. They shouldn’t be send to jail. Why? Because what they did they had no other option , they’re too young many soldiers were scarf for life & they have a life ahead of them.

Human-rights experts estimate around 200,000 children are still being used as child soldiers. Child soldiers should not be prosecuted, it’s just not right. Child soldiers are forced to kill, sometimes at war, and sometimes as terrorists. Child soldiers are usually drawn because they are provided safety and basic needs. They are not at fault, they should be given rehabilitation, and they are very unlike child criminals.

This report highlights the controversial issues regarding child solders recruited for combat in Iraq. There is a total of approximately 10 million child soldier in Iraq are involve in the terrorist organisation, Islamic State. Child soldier in the Islamic State are usually use as spies, messengers, lookouts or in propaganda. Throughout history, Iraqi children have been engaged in war as early as the Gulf War in 1991 as well as the Iran-Iraq war.

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.

That child soldiers are not different from criminals. An article called Child Soldiers, Prosecution argues that, “Child soldier have been responsible for some of the most brutal and violent acts in war time,” (Debatewise, 2016). Child soldiers have committed mutilation and mass killings of civilians. Under most domestic laws, the age of criminal prosecution can be much lower than 18. If a child can be convicted for murder under national law, they should also be held accountable for international crimes. In spite of this, child soldiers are not morally responsible for their actions. On the other hand, in the same article from Debatewise, an opinion states that, “Child soldiers are often the victims themselves,” (Debatewise, 2016). Children, when forced to join the army, are also forced to commit acts they normally would not, had they had the choice. They are only following orders of adults rather than acting for themselves. The commanders in charge of the children also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant to orders. Child soldiers, unless proven otherwise, should not be held responsible for actions they were forced to commit and had little to no understanding

Child soldiers are very common in the Country of Sierra Leone and that is not the only place that these children are being used to fight wars. Other places that are using the children as soldiers are places such as Columbia, South Sudan, Syria, Mexico, and Myanmar.All of these places are using child soldiers and it is a very hard thing to know that kids mine and your age are having to fight in wars and that is really hard to take in. The wars to solve conflict and help one of the groups gain power. The way that all of these children are being treated is horrific and it is something that needs to be stopped right now.

A child soldier is anyone under the age of eighteen recruited into working for either state or non-state armed forces requiring to perform a range of jobs including combat, laying mines and explosives, scouting, spying, acting as decoys, couriers and armed guards. Further, child soldiers may be forced into performing functions such as cooking, domestic labour and sexual slavery. Some children are even under the age of ten when they are recruited and are more likely to be forced into combat if they are from a poor background with limited education and live in combat zones. Children who are not forced may volunteer because of societal pressure to earn income, have food and gain security. The

Children are precious and represent the future of the world. They should be protected at all costs.

• Reed Brody, ¨Director of Human Rights Watch¨ protest against governments to stop using kids in the army.

For most of human history, war has generally been conceptualized as a domain of adults in uniform. However, in the past decades, a disturbing trend has surfaced – children, both boys and girls, are increasingly taking up arms. While this is not an entirely new attribute of warfare, the use of child soldiers in history has been an exception and not a regular feature as it appears to be today. According to international law, a child soldier is defined as any individual who is aged below eighteen and part of an armed organization. A conservative estimate of the number of child combatants stands at 300,000 and this excludes the other half a million children who perform non-combat duties in the army. Approximately 75 percent of armed conflict in the world involves children fighters. The worrying situation is best expressed by Peter W. Singer: “Children, as young as 6 and 7 years old, are serving as combatants on every continent but Antarctica.” Given these statistics, one can speculate that there may actually be underlying military advantages in using children to fight wars, and this is exploited by those who employ them. This is the premise which I base my research on. Adopting the understanding that