Child Soldiers
“all across somalia, smooth hairless faces peek out from behind enormous guns. In blown out buildings children load bullets twice the size of their fingers. In neighborhoods by the sea they run checkpoints and stop four by fours trucks though they can barely see over there hoods.” That quote from new york times upfront armed and underage article shows how much of a problem child soldiers are and are becoming as the use of child soldiers becomes a more widespread practice.
Now that you realise how much of a problem child soldiers are allowed me to give you some background. Children have been in the military all throughout history but as drummer boys or the girls as chefs. This quickly evolved until boys were marching into a
…show more content…
The first reason as stated by debatewise.org “Once children are recruted it is also difficult for them to leave because they become dependant on their commanders for drugs, alcohol money and ood.” allow me to explain this quote deeper. once they are “recruited” or in reality when they are kidnapped they are then drugged with cocaine mixed with gunpowder and if they refuse to take the drugs they are beaten or killed and sometimes both. Then after they are drugged they are forced to watch people be killed right in front of them this makes them even more dependant on the drugs and now they are dependant on alcohol in addition to be able to escape the grief so they become dependant on their commanders. The second reason why they are victimised has to do with the fate that they were forced into when they were kidnapped and the statistics about this was stated very well in the article summative essay child soldiers “...in the last 10 years over 2 million children have been killed, over 1 million orphaned, over 6 million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma.” This proves that child soldiers are victims because according to google the definition of viacom is “A person harmed injured or killed as result of a crime accident or other event or action.” and over 10 million child soldiers have been diagnosed with psychological trauma. …show more content…
They never wanted to be drugged and turned into a child soldier and once they are brainwashed with drugs and watching people be killed in front of them they are taught how to fight because they have lost everything else they ever knew so the only thing they know is how to follow orders and how to fight like stated in the article TIME magazine Hope for uganda's child soldiers? Philip Ludara states “You’re trained how to torture. You’re trained how to kill. It’s all you
The U.S. and other Western nations support the fragile Somali regime, which is battling an Islamic insurgency, as part of the counterterrorism strategy for the region.” As apparent, the United States has put a counterterrorism strategy into place, to help bring down the power that Somalia has over child soldiers. As seen from “Armed & Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman, “.200,000 children worldwide are still being used as combatants, usually against their will. And it isn't just boys: Girls are often pressed into duty as cooks or messengers.
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 ...
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
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.
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
Military children are in a league of their own, and at very young ages are thrown into situations of great stress. Approximately 1.2 million children live in the U.S. Military families (Kelly. 2003) and at least 700,000 of them have had at least one parent deployed (Johnson et al. 2007). Every child handles a deployment differently, some may regress in potty training, and others may become extremely aggressive. Many different things can happen, in most cases when a parent deploys and the child becomes difficult to handle, it can cause a massive amount of stress on the parent that is not deployed as well as added stress on the parent who is deployed. There are three stages of a deployment, pre-deployment, deployment, and reintegration, being educated on these three things can make a deployment “run” smoothly for the entire family.
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.
One reason why child soldiers are victims is they are taken advantage of in armed forces. Children tend to act without thinking through so then on command they commit terrible acts of violence. In a breeze, they can be taken control of because they are more easy to manipulate than adults. As a result, commanders use this as a tool when recruiting
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.
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).
In Africa there is a civil war between groups of terrorists and the government. But Children are also fighting in this war and they become child soldiers that are drugged with cocaine and have weapons. Are statement for today is that should child soldiers be victims or perpetrators?
An article by CNN talks about how children that become soldiers are abducted and forced to join the army, it’s not their choice. “(ISIS) abducts boys from Friday prayers at mosques or indoctrinates children as young as 10 to become fighters or suicide bombers” (“U.S. must get Tough over Child Soldiers”). These child soldiers do not have a say in if they would like to serve in armed forces or not. “Child soldiers . . . are abducted, then forced into murdering innocent human beings. They have no choice, if they don't fight their killed, if they fight they kill” (“Summative Essay- Child Soldiers”). These children are being told to kill or be killed. Due to the child soldiers being young ages, they chooses to live. Young soldiers do not wish to fight these battles, but if they do resist they die. Lastly,in one article, the author writes, “‘Al-Shabaab came one morning . . . there was a car waiting outside and they forced the children in . . . Children have been victims of . . . horrific human rights abuses, including stonings, amputations,and killings carried out by armed Islamic groups” (“Children in Somalia Facing War Crimes”). These children have seen terrifying things, and know that if they refuse to join this fight, they will
Children all around the world are being forced to join militias that they don’t want to. Their leaders, bribe them with drugs and alcohol so they keep fighting for them. “They are easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless, and most important, an endless supply.” The commanders say that they are the perfect weapon, and that’s why. Many people argue that these child soldiers should be given amnesty [Legal Forgiveness], sadly many think they shouldn’t.