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War effects on child development
The issue of child soldiers
The issue of child soldiers
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Recommended: War effects on child development
“Shooting became just like drinking a glass of water” said Ishmael Beah, an ex-child-soldier, “children who refused to fight, kill or showed any weakness were ruthlessly dealt with.” As children’s involvement in armed conflict keeps on increasing, “Child Soldiers” becomes a more and more popular phrase on newspapers and news. Many, however, do not have an insight view on what are actually behind simply “300,000 under-age, cold-blooded killers” (The Economist, Dec. 10th, 1998). A simple question “What do child soldiers fight for?” covers a vast range of elements including wealth, fame, or to simply survive. The issue of child soldier has taken place throughout human history and becomes more and more severe. The constitution of child soldiers, the efficiency of child soldiers as well as their purpose of fighting serve as great examples that can fully demonstrate how children become child soldiers and their crucial roles in world-wide conflicts.
While the Los Angeles Times describes “[t]he use of children as soldiers in armed conflict is among the most morally repugnant practices in the world,” former UN Secretary Kofi Annan expressed his anger and sorrow on his speech about child soldiers saying that: "I consider their existence our greatest failure.” Risking a whole generation’s lives and future by putting them in battlefield, various rebellion armies make central Africa, south Asia, Middle East as well as South America perceived as the most child soldier-concentrated region around the world. According to the statistic of the Unite Nations, approximately 800,000 child soldiers are currently serving in armies, militia or rebellion arm forces, while 300,000 of them are currently combatants in war. To a deeper layer of the issue, wher...
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... Home Entert a Enterainment, 2012. Blu-Ray.
"Stopping the Use of Child Soldiers." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2002. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. . http://www.unicef.org/media/media_72785.html Kaplan, Eben. "Child Soldiers Around the World." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 2 Dec. 2005. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .
Magnier, Mark. "Myanmar army releases child soldiers." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .
"Under-age killers." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 12 Dec. 1998. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.
Since the end of the Cold War, the recruitment of child soldiers has been recognized as an increasingly global phenomenon. Although the majority of the relatively recent child soldier recruitment cases have developed from armed conflicts in Africa, by the beginning of the new millennium the trend increased globally, appearing on nearly every continent, including Asia, Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of this practice has turned it into a much talked about international issue. The aim of this paper is to look at how this issue is influenced and even aggravated by globalization. More specifically, it will be argued that globalization, expressed through the existence of international organizations, such as the United Nations, have been ineffective in putting a stop to child soldiery and that globalization, defined by the interconnectedness of world economies has lead to underdevelopment and therefore exasperated conflict and as a result child soldiery.
middle of paper ... ... 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 to 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.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
The New York Times Bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... And Young was authored by Lt. General Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. In November 1965, Lt. Colonel Harold Moore commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th cavalry at the Ia Drang Valley-one of the bloodiest battles of Vietnam. He eventually retired from the Army in 1977 after thirty-two years of service. After his military career, Lieutenant General Moore resided as executive vice president for four years at a Colorado ski resort before founding a computer software company. Harold Moore currently lives in Auburn, Alabama and Crested Butte, Colorado.
“Use of Children as Soldiers.” Foreign Policy in Focus. 01 Nov. 2001: 1. eLibrary. Web. 10
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.
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.
Though the use of child soldiers is a global concern, the highest numbers have been reported mainly in Africa and Asi...
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.
One of the major problems in the Middle East is child related. To be specific, child soldiers. It is estimated that there are over 38,000 kids who are forced into being child soldiers (Storr). Because child soldiers can’t prevent their horrific fate, they deserve to be granted amnesty by the United Nations. One main reason why they should be given amnesty is because they are forced and drugged into becoming killers.
Children fought for their lives to defend their country by their own people. Children in Africa may spend their evenings doing homework or watching people play tag help parents with chores, or some kids may have jobs. This is normal for people under the age of 18 in Africa because they do not have power in some places. However, right now children are being bought, sold, and recruited into armies, where their fates and evenings are left in the hands of their leaders. Many people wonder why children are so often recruited into armies, and what happens to them once they are enlisted. Children died without in education, kids need an education so they can get a job and start their own future and probably
A soldier is an enlist individual, man or woman that fight in the military for his or her country. There are numerous reason has to what it means to be a good soldier. Being a good soldier varies depending on the individual. A good solider lives up to the army values, which are duty which is to fulfill your obligations by being able to accomplish tasks as part of a team, loyalty n being able to bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other soldiers, honor, being able to give up to Army values, integrity, do what’s right, legally and morally, personal courage, face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral, selfless service, being able to put the welfare of the nation, the Army and your subordinates before your own and respect, being able to treat people as they should be treated
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.