My topic for this report is “War should not be a place for children.” I decided to do this topic because i was inspired by the film War Horse directed by Steven Spielberg. In the film there were two young German boys who were sent to war underage and they were killed. This inspired me to do this topic because i was interested about how the events of World War 1 has impacted on the use of child soldiers today. It also made me curious about the consequences for the children and the society of children fighting in wars. In War Horse the boys were killed by their own army for desertion which showed me that once children begin to fight they are no longer considered children, and their punishments are reflected by this. My three questions i will …show more content…
During World War 2 the enlistment age was repeatedly lowered to bring in recruits. In Germany the age was lowered to 16 and there is photographic evidence of Hitler standing with “Tank hunting” children who were definitely below the age of conscription. The British age was lowered to 18 during World War 2. These ages have had an impact on the current ages. The US army has an enlistment age of 17 and Canada’s is 16. Britain’s is 16.5 and the British Army has stated that 40% of their enlistments are between 16 and 17. The official deployment age for all these countries is still 18 as sending anyone below that age into a conflict is illegal. My second source focuses more on the use of child soldiers in civil wars. There are many methods and means of getting child soldiers involved illegally in conflicts. Emmanuel Jal spoke of his own situation and how they manipulated his point of view to lay the blame on someone. This lead to his need for revenge and ultimately his involvement in a conflict dubbing him a ‘child soldier.’ He discovered that ”What was actually killing us wasn’t the Muslim, wasn’t the Arabs. It was somebody sitting somewhere manipulating the system, and using religion to get what they want to get out of us. Which is the oil, the diamond, the gold and the land.” This hierarchy model has been seen often in history, particularly in civil wars. There is an …show more content…
Children being involved in war had consequences for them and society. A short term result is the death of the children. This loss can have a big impact on the society and their family. This can develop into a long term issue because the number of children alive from that generation can begin to dwindle. The population of the villages also decreases. My second question was about how history has impacted the use of child soldiers, I have come to the conclusion that it has impacted it significantly in two ways, the lowered enlistment age for army’s and the multitude of civil wars in the world today. These civil wars are started by greedy, powerful and cruel people. I found that in some cases these civil wars are rebellions against unfair and unjust governments which escalate to unnecessary proportions and do more damage instead of fixing the original problems. The laws in place deter most countries in the world but failed states and internal conflicts can reach a point where law and order is no longer enforced. This is when the illegal use of child soldiers can become a regular ideology. The results of this can be seen today in countries such as Somalia where hundreds of children are killed each year in conflicts. These children are viewed as collateral damage. In my opinion children should never be
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 ...
As Garbarino recognizes, the effects of war and such violence is something that sticks with a child and remains constant in their everyday lives. The experiences that children face involving war in their communities and countries are traumatic and long lasting. It not only alters their childhood perspectives, but it also changes their reactions to violence over time. Sadly, children are beginning to play more of a major role in wars in both the United States and other countries.... ...
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.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
“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
The story of a young British man named Albert and his horse, Joey, will take you on a roller coaster of emotions as they are separated before heading off to serve in World War II. It not only takes you through the struggles and agony that the soldiers faced, but it also shows the hardships the horses were put through. War Horse is full of suspense and emotional resonance and is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen.
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.
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.
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.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of a Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict entered into force in 2002. It states that it is against the law for children under the age of 18 to be involved in hostilities. In a previous convention and the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocol, the minimum age to be involved in hostilities was 15 years old. Not only that, the Option...
Machel, Graca & Sebastian Salgado. The Impact of War on Children. London: C. Hurst, 2001.
Everyday I awake in a nice house, almost always have a way to get to school that is not walking, i am a normal child, one that is not forced to be a soldier, yet I believe child soldiers are still very effective as a troop. I agree with the claim of child soldiers being almost the perfect weapon because in the article by “Jeffrey Gettleman in Mogadishu, Somalia Upfront Magazine (October 4, 2010)” named “Armed and Underage” it states “"Child soldiers are ideal," a military commander from the African nation of Chad told Human Rights Watch. "They don't complain, they don't expect to be paid—and if you tell them to kill, they kill."” This ties back to my claim of child soldiers being a effective troop because it shows how they are very cost efficient, also the passage by Gettleman states “In some countries, hunger and poverty drive parents to sell their children into service. What's more, children are often
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.