Argumentative Essay: Child Soldiers

688 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How does war affect children

Essay: Child Soldiers Child soldiers, are any child under 18 years of age, who is a part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity. Some of the most egregious use of young minors forced to fight took place in Burundi, Colombia, democratic republic of the Congo, Liberia, Myanmar, and Uganda. Around the world, thousands of boys and girls are recruited into government armed forces and rebel groups to serve as combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, or in other roles. The horrible and terrible fate of numerous unfortunate children is set on a path of war, murders, and suffering; more nations should help to prevent the tragedies and to end the suffering of these poor, unfortunate, innocent children. War, arguably a …show more content…

Children are often abducted from families and forced to serve. When the young children come back from the war, returning to their old lives and live with their families is interdiction, it’s as if they had been abducted from their childhood. The further this situation continues, the longer young minors are being recruited causes a high rate of death, physically injuries, and mentally damaged; as a result, 2 million children have been killed in the conflict, over 1 million have been orphaned, over 6 million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been left with serious psychological trauma ;in fact, around 12 million children left homeless(“Children in war”). A solution to this to this horrifying tragedy, no child should go through the suffering and misery of being dissociated from their family. At least half of the estimated 57.4 million people displaced by war around the world are children, and millions of those children have been separated from their

Show More
Related

  • Impact of War and Violence on Children in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...volving death and separation. 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 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.

    Read More

  • The Military Use Of Child Soldiers In Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland

    1596 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is no exact known number of children currently being utilised in warfare worldwide. The issue of the military use of children is so widespread that no figure can be calculated, although it is estimated that there are currently over 250,000 child soldiers across the world. Many are drugged and brainwashed into murder, many are forced to sever all ties with their family or watch them die. Most are faced with a simple choice: kill or be killed. Although the notion of child soldiers is vastly alien to contemporary Australian society, it is a reality in many parts of the world.

    Read More

  • The Effects of War on Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

    2374 Words  | 5 Pages

    These conditions, caused by structural violence and weakened social systems, had severe consequences for all, but more so for children the children of Sierra Leone. Children make up the mass majority of the population of Sierra Leone. Because of the war, children had even less access to standardized education, they suffered immensely because of the unemploy¬ment of their parents, and thousands of children resorted to the struggle of surviving on the street (Zack-Williams, 2001). Children were preyed on by “thugs”. Soon children were unknowingly recruited as “child soldiers.” (It must be known that the term child soldier ...

    Read More

  • Social Reproduction in Society

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between A Long Way Gone And The Bite Of The Mango

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ishmael Beah first spoke of the horrors he had witnessed at the “1996 United Nations presentation of the Machel Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” (“Advocate for Children,” Par. 3). This presentation focused on the devastating effects that war imparts on the children involved. Today, Beah continues to advocate and represent change for the countless number of children still involved in wars around the

    Read More

  • Uganda's Child Soldiers

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Studies Explore Effects of War on Former Child Soldiers." Science Daily. Web. 6 May 2014. .

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers in Africa

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers

    2240 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers In A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers: Converting Innocent Children into Armed Killers

    3190 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Combatants

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers In Somalia Summary

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    “UNICEF estimated that in 1988, almost 200,000 children were involved in military actions as soldiers and fighters. In the 1980’s, many children joined armed groups in Cambodia to get food and protection (Yale University Bulletin).” Although the UNICEF has been fighting against children soldier abuses and child soldier slavery, every year in many countries, the rate of abuse and slavery has been rising. Yale university students demonstrate to the world how the government in many countries know that children soldiers are being traded in their countries but they do not protect their future generations from this chaos. I used this source in my essay because its aware why children have been joining to military for many decade to get protection and food.

    Read More

  • The Effect of War in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    Machel, Graca & Sebastian Salgado. The Impact of War on Children. London: C. Hurst, 2001.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Child Trafficking

    1652 Words  | 4 Pages

    The “Land of the free” is not so free after all. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry after illegal drugs and arms trafficking . Human trafficking is like modern day slavery; it is defined as the loss of freedom to another 's control by force, fraud or coercion. The United States turns out to be the #1 destination for child sex trafficking. I chose this topic because it interested me the most out of all other topics. When finding a topic to do research on, none of the topics left me asking myself so many questions. The fact that i barely knew anything about human trafficking, made me realize that there might be many people out there that are like me. People who probably think that human trafficking rarely happens,

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Child Abuse

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Child abuse refers to lack of care or any type of emotional, physical or sexual mistreatment that results in emotional damage or physical injury to a child or a youth. In most countries, children are considered to be anyone below 18 years of age. Child abuse can occur directly by harming a child or indirectly by failing to prevent the child from any form of harm or injury. Child abuse can occur either in the family set up, in the community set up or in an institution such as a school. Also, children can be abused by adults or by other children or by people who know them or people who are complete strangers to them.

    Read More

More about Argumentative Essay: Child Soldiers

Open Document