Imagine finding out that a child killed your loved one. What would you do? Wouldn't you want justice to be severe, but instead you find out that the child was not prosecuted. How would that make you feel? They are hundreds and thousands of child soldier getting away with kill innocent people just because they were told so. Then they are not in trouble and then more children are put into the war people the people doing this know nothing will happen and they could get away with murder. I feel like if they are not punished then they should at least be held accountable to show the people forcing kids into war that something will happen and that they won't be able get away with killing people. They are still kids so if they are being punished …show more content…
Something to counter this is that when kids reach 9 or 10 they should have an understanding that killing people is bad, they are seeing people dying around them and they would at least be aware of what they are doing. They join because of the benefits and when they are willing to join they know what they are doing they know that they are going to hurt or kill people but they use anyways just because they want the benefits that come with it. If they don't face the consequences then how will they know that what they do is not allowed and that they shouldn't act like that and hurt people. Many even join without even thinking about what they are doing to be doing if they join and that is a selfish thing to do. One quote proves my point ¨Children often become child soldiers in acts of patriotism and in want to avenge the deaths of their family members.¨ This quote shows how they are only thinking about revenge and not the fact that what they are going to do is going to affect a lot of …show more content…
The quote is from the same article it states, ¨For instance, many believe that child soldiers are mere replicas of child criminals; child criminals are prosecuted. Over the course of the past decades child soldiers have been responsible for some of the most brutal acts in wartime, such as rape, mutilation and mass killings of innocent civilians. ¨This shows that they should be held accountable because they are committing brutal and disturbing crimes, traumatizing many people and just to think they are kids purposely doing
Firstly, It is very hard to understand that an innocent kid who is having fun, learning and discovering the world and all the great things about life, wants to become a deadly killing machine by itself. Children are being conducted into a bloody soldier against their will and opinion,”None of them remembers a time without war, most were turned into soldiers against their will”(Santoro). Kids are the most amazing creatures in the world, they should be available to choose their career and the path they want to follow in life. Every person in the world should remember their childhood like the happiest stage in their lives and to follow their
Everyone knows how alcohol can stunt a child's growth of the brain and body, as well as drugs damaging their decision making (Child Soldiers, Prosecution). Not to mention if they are high or drunk that will sway their decisions to a side they normally wouldn’t go. Their leaders have forced them into taking unknown substances or drink a large amount of an alcohol that easily affects the young kids. This makes the kids follow orders easier, but makes them incapable of telling what is right or wrong. Which to their leaders, just makes them “the perfect weapon”(Armed and Underage). It is ultimately not their fault that they have hurt others and if the blame is put on someone, it should be on the ones who recruited and who controlled
“This is how wars are fought now: by children, traumatized, hopped-up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s” (Beah). Innocent, vulnerable, and intimidated. These words describe the more than 300,000 children in nations throughout the world coerced into combat. As young as age seven, boys and girls deemed child soldiers participate in armed conflict, risking their lives and killing more innocent others. While many individuals recollect their childhood playing games and running freely, these children will remember “playing” with guns and running for their lives. Many children today spend time playing video games like Modern Warfare, but for some children, it is not a game, it is reality. Although slavery was abolished nearly 150 years ago, the act of forcing a child into a military position is considered slavery and is a continuously growing trend even today despite legal documents prohibiting the use of children under the age of 18 in armed conflict. Being a child soldier does not merely consist of first hand fighting but also work as spies, messengers, and sex slaves which explains why nearly 30 percent of all child soldiers are girls. While the use and exploitation of these young boys and girls often goes unnoticed by most of the world, for those who have and are currently experiencing life as a child soldier, such slavery has had and will continue to have damaging effects on them both psychologically and physically.
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
Children are usually viewed as young people that do not have very much to think about, or have much responsibility. That is not the case for these individuals. In fact, child soldiers/suicide bombers are almost the exact opposite. A child soldier is defined as “anyone under the age of 18 who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity” (Human Rights). They are put through hardship in which they do not deserve. Kids should not have these images in their head this young. They should not have to go through this abuse either. Children are abused and mistreated all around the world, and child soldiers/suicide bombers are one of the worst circumstances.
Most of these kids had the choice to be killed or become a child soldier. All the soldiers chose the wrong choice, a choice that would make them a criminal. In the article, Armed and Underage it states, 8,000 children are fighting in armed rebel groups battling the U.S. government. The worst part of this is, many children volunteer to become soldiers. If a child volunteers are held accountable for the acts committed, stated in child soldiers,
Imagine being given a gun and drugs and forced to kill on demand or be killed. This is the life of a child soldier in a nutshell. There is no question that child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are being forced to do things against their will and hardly have a choice of what they are doing. A child in a village doesn’t get to decide if their village is attacked and they are made a soldier. It is wrong that someone, especially a child, should be held accountable for something they can’t control except to lose their own life instead.
Although not everyone knows it, there is a huge tragedy that is, and has been, going on even in this exact moment. That tragedy is children being taken out of their ordinary lives, whether by force or not, away from their families and into battle. No matter how much these children went through in the wars, the question still remains: once the war is over, should they be granted amnesty, or be prosecuted? The answer to this comes from thorough research. Child soldiers should be granted amnesty because they are unaware of what they are doing, they need help rather than prosecution, and many are forced to fight.
Child soldiers are a prevalent issue in the international community and must be stopped. Whether kidnapped, enslaved, or volunteered: child soldiers are a clear violation of human rights. The United Nations are actively working to eradicate the issue by creating programs such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which is a treaty that contains three Optional Protocols, the first of which is aimed at protecting children’s rights.
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.
Children at such a young age don't have the mental ability to think long term about their actions, especially when they are being forced or drugged. Some may argue that if child criminals get punished for their actions, then child soldiers should too, but that is just not the case. The difference being, child criminals choose to commit their crimes, child soldiers are forced to commit crimes. 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).
They may also be selective because of lack of evidence or an overloaded justice system, so not every child soldier will be prosecuted. It is better to have a comprehensive rehabilitation program so that all child soldiers can be re-integrated into society and rehabilitated. I agree because they don’t want to do whatever they make them do as a child soldier it’s not their fault they drugged them also they got traumatized with all the killing and blood they were seeing at war they don’t know who to trust anymore.
Personally, I believe that the actions performed by child soldiers are really tragic. It’s disgusting that adults think it’s right to allow children as young as six years old to be let on to the war field and kill. Even though the children do
Child combatants have been found on the battlefield throughout history. One of the first notable examples of the use of child combatants was the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), a militia group of young boys, that fought in the Nazi party during the closing days of World War II. There has since been a rise of children combatants on the modern-day battlefield. The rise in using children in combat is due to many factors. One of those factors are the crumbling social structures that surround children in the war torn countries. Without a solid social structure, children are more likely to be found on the battlefield. Additionally, a large majority of children volunteer to become soldiers. They often believe that the best option for survival is to join the fight instead of risking their lives battling against it. Other children enlist because they want to seek revenge on behalf of their families who have been murdered, raped, tortured, and abused by the conflict. (Kaplan) Other factors that lead children to join on the battlefield include poverty, lack of work, and few educational opportunities. Many girls that have joined have reported enlisting to escape do...
In the twenty first century there have been many cases of kids committing murder, whether it is the relationships they hold at home or the video games they play, the environment a child is exposed to will affect their developmental process. Children are supposed to be innocent and pure without the desire to kill, yet in the last 50 years official statistics on Listverse.com suggest that over 1,100 kids have been found guilty of murder in England alone. The average age of a child that kills is just about fourteen years old. These kids are usually brought up in an environment that does not teach them right from wrong.