child soldiers

To have a better understanding about the solutions that are being implemented in different countries, by the governments alone or with the help of UN, and to know if these solutions are really helping to end the problem or they are not working is necessary to analyze them. The solutions that will be analyzed are the efforts of the Myanmar Government to end the recruitment of children by the Tatmadaw Kyi with the help of UN, and the solution implemented by the Colombian Government called Sport Diplomacy to prevent the children to join the guerrilla.

The efforts of the Myanmar Government with the aid of UN have resulted in mixed success. The complaints received by the task force, regarding child recruitment, are decreasing but still remain a long way to go. The issue of child soldiers in Myanmar is far from over, as the 2013 Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council affirms, the cases of recruitment of child soldiers by the Tatmadaw Kyi are decreasing, in part because of prevention measures and a more rigorously control of the recruitment process, the use of child soldiers is still of concern. The principal cause of the relative success is the commitment of the Government of Myanmar with the implementation of control measures and the signature of international obligations, but Myanmar`s Government is still reluctant to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which will oblige them to implement several provisions with the supervision of the International Community (Louder than words, 2012). Another of the reasons because the situation cannot be totally solved is the existence of non-governmental armed groups that continue using children ...

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...nywhere, unless is accompanied by others measures, such as developing and financial programs that helps the families out of poverty. The Sport Diplomacy program will certainly not work in Uganda, where the children are recruited by force and terror.

The solutions analyzed gave a better idea of the problem. The efforts of the Government of Myanmar are in good direction but the several reasons already analyzed conspire against the solution of the problem. The same can be said about the Sport Diplomacy program implemented by the Government of Colombia, the focus on the children is right, but the way to do it, using sports and leaving other issues more relevant unattended, hurts the efficiency of the solution. In addition, probably these solutions will not work in other countries because the nature of the issue is determined by the context of each country.