The Role of Socialization of Children in War Essay

Men are always last, women and children always go first. But in a war so brutal even the youngest of boys are treated as adults and feared like criminals. The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone show exactly how men and women endure a distinct type of pain throughout this war. Being a boy means a lot to the rebels. They can use you to fight their war, ignite fear into people’s life and destroy as they

* Men yelling in your face. Women screaming for their children’s lives. Imagine all of a sudden you are brainwashed and turned into a killing machine. How would you feel if you were made a slave to a cause you didn't even understand. This sounds like it's straight from a movie, right? Well, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) used tactics like these towards children in order to indoctrinate them. In 1991, the start of the Sierra Leonean civil war, many children were drafted and forced into the RUF and SLA armies. The armies brainwashed the children and aimed them at the opposing force. By indoctrinating children it is stripping them from their necessary human rights and harm is put on these children. Tactics used by the militaries are against moral standards in every way shape and form. *

Today, Human right groups estimate that there are at least if not more than 300,000 child soldiers worldwide. In poorer countries, there are more child soldiers because they fight of land, minerals and drugs. Even though the kids are the perfect weapons for these civil wars in poorer countries, because they are easily manipulated, extremely loyal, fearless and most importantly endless supply; there should not be kids fighting for their country unless they are 18 because of the physical and psychological problems.

Everyday, hundreds of children get stripped of their liberties by force to join a cause of war whether it is done through force or trickery. As stated by Ilse Derluyn, “It is estimated that about 250,000 children worldwide, both boys and girls, are involved in armed groups”. The most common way in which children join military groups are from when they are abducted from their home or school. By storming into a house or a school, the recruiters can get a high number of children with minimal problems involved in the process. When the recruiters raid a school or a house, the adults watching over the children have no option but to pass up the youngsters. On a larger scale, militant groups might take over a specific village or town area and make a trade with the villagers for some children. In return for the kid soldiers, the militant group will offer protection from outside forces. This is perhaps the more fair way of recruiting child soldiers because the family's get to choose which kids to give up like their older kids around the ages of eighteen and seventeen as opposed to being forced to pass up the younger kids. On account of Joshua Berlinger, an editor for CNN,” primarily seen in South East Asia,

In other cases, families living in poverty sell their biological children into the army based on the social status and not being able to care for the child. Furthermore, escaping is not a choice when it comes to their cruel commanders. According to the article, Hope for Uganda’s Child Soldiers, Laura Blue and Jonathan Woodward, journalist of this article states that child soldiers “never said a word about escaping [because] it would mean swift execution.” (2006) The authors makes it clear that the children who were forced into duty had no choice of coming to war in the first place, in which leads to the reason that escaping, but it’s difficult especially when execution is the alternative. So, they do what they can to be alive, which in this case is to follow the commands such as ending their civilians’ lives. In to additon to this, this quote indicates theses kids have little to no power, so it easily drive them to do these evil deeds when they don’t have many choices to choose from and survival is

Child soldiers may often be over-looked when discussing issues of social injustice. The average person may not know that this still occurs, but in fact, it does in places such as Sierra Leone and Uganda. The psychological, economic, and social impacts on these innocent children are staggering. These children are robbed of a normal childhood, and in most cases, a normal life altogether. Although there are many campaigns against child slavery and soldiers, not all of these children are saved from this abuse. There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers around the world, and an estimated 6,000 in the Central African Republic alone.

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

Thinking about children holding guns and killing people makes us realize how corrupt the world is. In many countries around the world children are used for armies; they may be national Armies or opponents of government armies. If we think of how many children are being recruited to work voluntary or involuntary in armies we could not even guess, because around 300,000 children are active soldiers younger than eighteen years old. That is an approximation; it could be more or less, all we know is there are hundreds of children suffering from hunger and lack of love. So we ask ourselves why do they do this? Are they obligated? Are there economic reasons or just the desire of want? Many are forced and others are just volunteers.

Child soldiers have become very common in places of constant war or combat. With the need for more soldiers as others die off, the juvenile population in places such as West Africa and the Middle East is plentiful and available. Military recruiters in these regions specifically look into children because of their “immaturity and basic curiosity which makes them susceptible” and easily influenced (Somasundaram 1269). Commonly, child soldiers don’t have a choice if they want to be recruited or not because they are usually trapped (by socioeconomics or other factors) and forced to participate. In war times, the country of recruitment is usually in chaos to begin, and child removal from families is effortless for recruiters. Once brought into the training camps where propaganda is well presented, children immediately feel scared, a result of the detachment from their families. Recruiters often feed detrimental information to the children, which typically includes certainty of family deaths and subsequent threats of the death of loved ones which “create a sense of fear, frustration, hopelessness, and general discontent” (Somasundaram 1269). The overload of emotions and inexperience causes children to immediately look to re-fulfill the authority figure in their lives (which was once their family) in order to regain a sense of comfort; similarly to the

The prominent conflict in the Central African Republic has caused many to lose irreplaceable innocence. A majority of children born in the Central African Republic are constantly in danger due to the conflict that has practically turned neighbor against neighbor. Likewise, a child soldier displays this idea when he states, “With the rebels, he had power, Charly said. ‘I had boots, a uniform and a gun in my hand.’” As one may derive, many children may feel the need to become a child soldier in order to maintain a somewhat steady source of food supply, shelter, and/or money. Therefore, this circular sequence of events has created a steady flow of children who constantly lose their innocence in the Central African Republic. All in all, many children

The practice of conscripting children forcefully to soldiers is one of the most nefarious forms of slavery in the modern world. In the late 20th and early 21st century it was a rising conflict and a common occurrence in places such as Iran, Liberia, and Uganda. Human rights activists recognized that the use of child soldiers will increase in the near future, as well as involving the conflict of HIV/AIDS in these areas and the increase of the youth population. Children are enslaved, captured, and abused under the hired gun. They are forced to do certain tasks requested by whoever recruited them. Children are vulnerable and they can be manipulated easily. According to the article Background and History of Child soldiers “In Asia, the key recruiters

More analytically, the authors examine all the aspects that lead children to bear arms by focusing on conflicts in Guatemala, Israeli, El Salvador, Sri Lanka and Liberia. The book firstly responds to the question of what the child is and secondly to what are the reasons for children participating in armed conflicts. At the end, significant suggestions are given on how to prevent and halt the recruitment of children into armed groups.

Children recruited into the armed forces in these countries are forced by their commanders to commit atrocities against other soldiers and villagers. They may also suffer through punishments themselves. Commanders have been known to force their child recruits to witness and/or commit abuses against their own families or captured prisoners (“Coercion and Intimidation of Child Soldiers to Participate in Violence” 1). For instance, child soldiers recruited into Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army have been forced to tie their parents to trees and club them to death or be killed themselves (Taylor 1). Physical

Children in armed conflicts is when a child under the age of 18 has been recruited into an armed group by force where they are then be used as spies, fighters, messengers, cooks, and many more things. More than 100,000 kids have been forced into joining these armed groups. Consequently, minors working in these armed groups may come from a substandard life when they are recruited. They are then pressured into committing acts of violence. They could have also been beaten up and abused, as well as being forced into taking drugs and other harmful substances. Some kids join armed forces

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group that abducts children to use as fighters and sex slaves; it attacks schools, hospitals, and communities in Uganda, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and DRC. Invisible Children is an organization that protects children who are in danger of the LRA in central Africa. It has created the LRA Crisis Tracker to locate and broadcast the LRA’s attacks. Also, they use Early Warning Network radios that allow DRC and Central African Republic communities to notify others of LRA attacks. Throughout the years, Invisible Children has convinced many LRA members to surrender by giving them instructions to safe reporting sites. It established Community Defection Committees to heal victims of the LRA, such as child soldiers. With the help of NGOs and programs that ensure security and children’s rights, humankind can end the recruitment of child soldiers. These solutions should be introduced to more vulnerable communities to prevent disaster and preserve the safety of