The Fear of Child Soldiers in 3rd World Countries

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.

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.

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.

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”)

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.

It is approximated that about 40% of all child soldiers are located in Africa, and out of an estimated 300,000 child soldiers globally, around 250,000 of them are active in Africa. "According to the 2008 Global Report on Child Soldiers by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, the LRA has abducted about 25,000 children since the 1980s." (www.accord.org.za) The percentage of children that are used as soldiers in Africa is shocking. Child soldiers in Africa are not fighting for the freedom of their country, though. The majority of children recruited as child soldiers are fighting alongside rebel groups who hope to take control of their country. These children do whatever the rebels tell them to do, and a failure to comply often results

In America a regular child wakes up in the morning to a loving home were they eat breakfast and head to school, in Africa a regular child wakes up to heartless generals were they grab their guns and head to war.What is a child soldier? They are any children recruited by state or non-state armies or armed groups under the age of 18.In Africa the child soldier problem is growing fast and there are not a enough solutions being made or things being done to stop it.

There are hundreds of thousands of children who are currently accommodating in combat for a rebel group or government (“Facts About Child Soldiers”). For example, during the civil war of Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2001, the use of children as soldiers became more rampant ("Child soldiers in Sierra Leone"). The rebel group Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone coerced children to join them in combat by intimidating and abducting them. They would also rape

Child soldiering has been and continues to be a problem in countries all across the world, however primarily focused in the East. Uganda has faced many instances where child soldiers were being involuntarily imposed into the war. The most recent incident involving Joseph Kony, rebel leader of the Lords Resistance Army, brainwashing millions of Ugandan children and forcing them to fight in the war. Imagine waking up and going through your daily routine, which has become almost a second nature. It’s normal for me to wake up, eat breakfast and do homework but the routine for child soldiers includes drugs and violence that is unimaginable to people like me who have never been exposed to the atrocities of war. These children had their lives stripped

In today’s day and age, children from all over the world are real soldiers in conflicts instead of playing toy soldiers. These children are being denied their childhood and instead are given a violent and gruesome role to play in brutal conflicts. These children are fighting wars that they had no responsibility in creating. Children are fighting in wars created by their elders. Children are replacing their toys with guns, like AK-47’s and instead of having a chance to attend

“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.

“Child soldiers. Two simple words. But they describe a world of atrocities committed against and sometimes by children.” (COALITION TO STOP THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS). Child soldiers are taught at a young age that violence is ok. They are given dangerous weapons and even in extreme cases are forced to kill others in order to get food. They are treated like animals and are victims of a bad influence. The soldiers are taught that they can kill with no punishment. One might disagree that child soldiers should be given amnesty because they carry out the orders of killing others. Although they could’ve ran away while carrying out the orders, many were hunted down by name due to the fact that they escaped. In order to survive the malicious war, the children had to fight for things they didn’t want to. They had to persevere through life threatening situations in order to win a battle some won’t fight for. This proves how child soldiers are victims because they are forced into war with dangerous weapons. They are forced to kill in order to live and have no other choices to live a good life. The violence that is taught to the soldiers is often carried out after the war, and is helped by organizations such as UNICEF to correct the detrimental behavior.

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today. They usually range from 14 to 18 but some get pulled in at as young as 11. Child soldiers are used in war because their naive tendencies, poor backgrounds, and capability to be easily intimidated and they used for many different things.