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Short term and long term effects of child soldiers
Analysis on child soldiers
Short term and long term effects of child soldiers
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Child Soldiers
“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.
Throughout the world children younger than 18 are being enlisted into the armed forces to fight while suffering through multiple abuses from their commanders. Children living in areas and countries that are at war are seemingly always the ones being recruited into the armed forces. These children are said to be fighting in about 75 percent of the world’s conflicts with most being 14 years or younger (Singer 2). In 30 countries around the world, the number of boys and girls under the age of 18 fighting as soldiers in government and opposition armed forces is said to be around 300,000 (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). These statistics are clearly devastating and can be difficult to comprehend, since the number of child soldiers around the world should be zero. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands adolescent children are being or have been recruited into paramilitaries, militias and non-state groups in more than 85 countries (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). This information is also quite overwhelming. Child soldiers are used around the world, but in some areas, the numbers are more concentrated.
Though the use of child soldiers is a global concern, the highest numbers have been reported mainly in Africa and Asi...
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...Feb. 2004: 1-3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Gettleman, Jeffrey. “Armed & Underage.” New York Times Upfront 20 Apr. 2009: 1-7. eLibrary. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Miller, Sarah Rose. “Child Soldiers.” Humanist 1 July 2002: 1-4. eLibrary. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Morse, Jane. “Nongovernment Groups Play Role in Stopping Use of Child Soldiers.” America.gov Press Release 29 Apr. 2008: 1-3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.
Singer, P.W. “Children at War.” Military History 24.6 (2007): 1-5. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
Taylor, Rupert. “The Plight of Child Soldiers.” Suite 101. Media Inc., 11 May 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2011. .
Xanthaki, Mirela. “Few Gains Have Been Made Against Use of Child Soldiers.” Inter Press Service 20 May 2008: 1-3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
In a significant part of the world, there are many countries that recruit child to become soldiers against their will. Child soldiers are being utilized to commit horrendous actions that people would not believe could be done by just kids. The United States should intervene in wars where child soldiers are being used ,because they are transformed against their will,being killed and the ones who survived are more likely to become psychopaths.
“Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. 1 June 2000. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
...c, and Patty Campbell. War Is…Soldiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk About War. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008. Print.
Since the end of the Cold War, the recruitment of child soldiers has been recognized as an increasingly global phenomenon. Although the majority of the relatively recent child soldier recruitment cases have developed from armed conflicts in Africa, by the beginning of the new millennium the trend increased globally, appearing on nearly every continent, including Asia, Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of this practice has turned it into a much talked about international issue. The aim of this paper is to look at how this issue is influenced and even aggravated by globalization. More specifically, it will be argued that globalization, expressed through the existence of international organizations, such as the United Nations, have been ineffective in putting a stop to child soldiery and that globalization, defined by the interconnectedness of world economies has lead to underdevelopment and therefore exasperated conflict and as a result child soldiery.
middle of paper ... ... Children within the United States whose parents serve in the military are left to deal with issues of separation and fear. The fear of not knowing when their parents are coming home, and if they’ll come back to the same person they were when they left. Since we are incapable of hiding violence and the act of war from children, it is better to help them understand the meaning behind it and teach them that violence is not always the answer. Children react based on what they see and hear, and if the community and world around them portrays positive things, then the child will portray a positive attitude as well.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
While some children and adults are able to escape the wrath of the LRA, many are hurt, persecuted and forgotten about every year, by the group’s tactics. Children are taken during raids in villages near the borders of Uganda, Sudan, Congo, and the Central African Republic. The men are usually killed and the women flee, are killed, or trafficked. These raids are usually carried out by “child soldiers much younger than their victims,” where they are forced to kill possible relatives and kidnap other children. The male children that are taken are usually forc...
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.
...it may help us arrive at an understanding of the war situation through the eyes of what were those of an innocent child. It is almost unique in the sense that this was perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to directly give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the child-killer. While the book does give a glimpse of the war situation, the story should be taken with a grain of salt.
Africa has been described as “the world’s most silent crisis.” They’ve been labeled this because African’s have struggled with child soldiers for many years. Child soldiers are used all throughout Africa. That includes Mozambique, Somalia, Congo and Uganda. The Central African Region (CAR) is the most known vicinity that employs child soldiers due to the viral video released in 2012, by an organization called “The Invisible Children”. The focus of this video was on the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony. The video helped spread awareness about child soldiers but there are many other places that use child soldiers that are not talked about. This has been an issue for nearly 20 years. There’re places in the world where children are being abducted and coerced into becoming fighters at very young ages. Young adults should not just understand how this is happening, but why and how to help. Children should not have to worry about whether they are going to be abducted at night and have to kill their friends and family the next day. Children becoming soldiers in Africa has been an issue for far too long and needs to be stopped.
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, one million orphaned or separated from their parents, and ten million psychologically traumatized (Unicef, “Children in War”). They have been robbed of their childhood and forced to become part of unwanted conflicts. In African countries, such as Chad, this problem is increasingly becoming a global issue that needs to be solved immediately. However, there are other countries, such as Sierra Leone, where the problem has been effectively resolved. Although the use of child soldiers will never completely diminish, it has been proven in Sierra Leone that Unicef's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program will lessen the amount of child soldiers in Chad and prevent their use in the future.
Sometimes dealing with children can be a battle in itself, but in many countries, children fight the battles that adults have created. These young people are known as children warriors, soldiers, and combatants. The use of children in war is an unfortunate issue; but it is part of some people’s everyday life. Whether the child is fighting for their government or their life, they are often in constant danger. The foreign policies that have been put in place to protect children have yet to halt the ever-growing amount of children combatants.
Machel, Graca & Sebastian Salgado. The Impact of War on Children. London: C. Hurst, 2001.
In war conflicts, children are the ones that suffer the most. Children without education, no parents, or are poor find themselves joining an army because of desperation. Most join to have a better live. They become soldiers in conflict of war under violent warlords rule. This research paper is going to explain why and how warlords use children as soldiers during war conflict.