A highly debated topic amongst society is whether or not child soldiers should be considered as victims or criminals. There are children in this world that don’t get to experience the wonders of growing up. They are trained to hold a gun and shoot a man with no second thoughts, and if they don’t obey there are serious consequences, one being death. These children are bribed to become a soldier with money and food, sometimes they have to accept in order for their family to be fed. Child soldiers should be treated like victims because they are brainwashed into thinking that killing people is okay, the recruitment of child soldiers under the age of 15 is a war crime, and when they are recruited they are treated very poorly and often given the …show more content…
Sometimes they aren’t even affected by shooting someone, they don’t have time to second guess their decisions. According to an article called, Child Soldiers: If not Prosecution, Then What?, “The child soldiers are so overwhelmed that they did not know the difference between right and wrong.” The children don’t even know that killing somebody is wrong, they just obey their commander. They are forced to do things that they might not want to do, but if they don’t obey their commander they will be severely punished. Some people may think that it is their choice to obey their commanders and do whatever they say, but it turns out that the reasons why they will follow their commander are, they are brainwashed, they were bribed, or they could be punished for not obeying. Another significant reason why child soldiers should be considered as victims is, a lot of the children's commanders illegally recruit the children when they are under the age of …show more content…
Children definitely play the victim part in this because they are often punished harshly if they don’t do something right or they are given the worst jobs. According to an article called, The Challenges of the African Criminal Court in Prosecuting Child Soldiers, “ Military commanders encourage to delegate the ‘dirtiest’ orders to child soldiers. “ The commanders of the children often deal out the most unfortunate jobs to the children like, performing an execution, or being a suicide bomber or even watching an execution to see how it’s performed. To be fair, there are circumstances where children choose to do these jobs or want to do them. It is only under those circumstances, however children still should never be given the job of performing an execution or being a suicide bomber. All of these reasons explain the children should not be prosecuted and should be treated like
As defined by Timothy Webster, author of Babes with Arms: International Law and Child Soldiers, a child soldier is “any person under the age of eighteen who is or has been associated with any kind of regular or irregular armed group, including those who serve as porters, spies, cooks, messengers and including girls recruited for sexual purposes (Webster, 2007, pp.230). As this definition reveals, a child soldier is more than simply a child with a gun. It is estimated that there are approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18, being used as soldiers in 33 conflicts currently, and this figure continues to rise (Webster, 2007, pp.227). Similarly, in 1999 it was estimated that more than 120,000 children, under the age of 18, were used as soldiers to fight ...
The first reason these kids shouldn’t be prosecuted or punished in any way is because it wasn’t their choice to be a soldier to begin with. According to Child Soldiers, Prosecution, most kids were forced to fight and had no choice of weather to enlist or not. There are about 200,000 child soldiers worldwide state's Armed and Underage, (Gettleman) and these kids are doing things their adolescent brains
...t they are easy to access; they are low cost, and easy to manipulate. When children are on the battlefield fighting for their lives, they become more violent and tend to do more killing than usual, raping girls, and torturing others. The armies, militia, and rebel groups recruit the children and separate the community to resist the conscription. The child is being forced to commit murder and turn against their family and friends because this proves that the child is recognized and implicated in the violence they have created. Child soldiers are known to be criminals, traitors, or even terrorists, so they would be held in military prisons. When either girl or boys are captured they go through abusive interrogation procedure, torture, isolations, rape, and death threats. These are the consequences of children being on the battlefield and shortly after being captured.
After achieving economic dominance following the events of World War II, the United States and its allies in Europe began to spread their influence. Commonly referred to as “the West”, these nations impacted people all over the world through music, propaganda, and relief efforts. The United States, as a free superpower, is morally obligated to promote democracy around the world (Evinger and Montanez-Muhinda). This can easily be observed in the stories of two children, Mariatu Kamara and Ishmael Beah, whose lives are changed by a brutal civil war. Despite playing a large role in both tales, the effects of western world are much more prevalent and impactful in A Long Way Gone than in The Bite of the Mango.
Children have been used as soldiers in many events, however two that stand out are the use of child soldiers in the Sierra Leone civil war and the drug cartels in Mexico. Most people agree that forcing children to be soldiers is wrong and not humane. The people that make them soldiers transform them into belligerent beings by force. Child soldiers of drug cartels and the armies of Sierra Leone were threatened with their lives if they didn’t become soldiers. The lives of these child soldiers are lives that nobody should live. Situations in both countries are horrible because of the high number of youngsters that are forced to take part in drug use and are transformed into extremely belligerent and inhumane people; in addition they are deprived
Parallel to the post World War II developments of IHL, rape incrementally gained recognition as an international crime, including as a crime against humanity. Rape was accepted as an express form of crimes against humanity via the incorporation of international
A child soldier is a child who has been abducted and forced to fight in a conflict in which they would not typically be involved in. Child soldiers have their relatively normal childhood taken away if they are abducted. Instead of playing with the other children, they are forced to murder them. Many are forced to watch the people they once knew be tortured and they may even take part in the act. Child soldiers are internationally banned, yet many countries still utilize them to this day. Uganda is one country in which they are used. The use of children in armed combat in Uganda sheds light on the fact that the concept of power is indeed a double-edged sword.
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.
“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.
From the time that they’re children, American citizens are taught to associate the words “...Liberty and Justice for all,” with their country. However, there’s at least one group of people being greatly deprived of justice: survivors of rape. It comes as no surprise that approximately sixty-eight percent of rapes are not reported in a country where approximately ninety-eight percent of rapists are never jailed (Rape - Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes). Victims of this horrible crime are going through possibly the worst trauma of their lives, so it’s very difficult for them to want to come forward to law enforcement and somewhat have to relive their trauma, especially given the previous statistics. Perhaps one of the greatest contributors to these horrifying statistics, therefore, a reason rape survivors are unlikely to come forward, is the backlog of things called rape kits that many jurisdictions in the United States currently have.
As an example, in the article Child Soldiers it states “ More often than not, children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children have become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol” (Child Soldiers) As you can see, this shows how children have no control if they kill or not from either being threatened with death or being drugged. In addition, in the article The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo it talks about how a child soldier got interrogated by guards where they told him he would be gang-raped and murdered if he didn’t obey (Prasow). This is another example of how these kids have to choose between life and death at such a young age. This is just one main reason why these kids deserve
Child soldiers aren’t morally responsible for their actions because of their age and how easily manipulated children can be and a young age. In the article, Child Soldiers: Victims or Perpetrators?, it says, “Children are forced by commanders through false promises, drugs and things which you can’t even imagine, to kill innocent civilians, other children and even their own families.” (invisiblechildren). Through the use of drugs and unimaginable acts these kids are brainwashed into following orders of their commanders who order them to kill. Some commanders will go as far as having children kill their own families and other civilians.
According to Christophe Pierre Bayer, 250,000 children are being abused as child soldiers (Bayer 2). A twelve-year-old
Child Soldiers: The use of children in the military. Child Soldiers have three different roles in armed conflict. They can take a direct part in hostilities, or they can be used for support, such as sexual slaves, lookouts, messengers, and spies. Also, they can be used in the political aspect of war. Because many children have been physically or mentally damaged by their participation in armed conflict, children should not have any involvement in any armed conflict and should be removed indefinitely from warfare. Every child has the right to go to school, free from violence. Children have been used in the military for hundreds of years.
Is anyone truly a stranger to nightmares? Has anyone not woken up in a feverish sweat with a racing pulse or pounding heart? Whose eyes have never wildly searched their room for the phantoms of a dream? Now, what if the familiar consolation of learning it was all in your head never came? How do you wake up from a nightmare that is, in fact, a reality? I think I’m getting ahead of myself. What I mean to say is, I was raped, and rape is a nightmare.