Introduction:
People generally relate war to long lines of men in uniform, holding guns, marching alongside tanks and other types of armored vehicles. The image of manslaughter, mass murder and death sprawl across the thoughts of families at home, waiting for their husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters to finally be finished their tour and come home. However what people commonly misunderstand is that there is a growing population of youth militia being used in modern guerilla military.
The United Nations defines a child soldier as “any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group [acting] in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers and anyone accompanying such groups.” The current estimate says there are currently 300,000 child soldiers worldwide. The use of child soldiers becomes especially problematic when children are abducted or coerced into joining government, paramilitary or rebel forces, as happens in many third world and developing countries. Children are easy to recruit because of their vulnerability, but are often neglected once the conflict is over or when they leave the group. International groups have advocated for the rehabilitation of child soldiers, but children are often overlooked during official implementation.
Definition of Key Terms:
Child Soldier - Any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group [acting] in any capacity.
Rehabilitation - the restoration of someone to a useful place in society.
Conflict – open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals).
Guerilla – a member of a regular armed force the fights a stronger ...
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...d Trade in Boy Soldiers Continues | Human Rights Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. .
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• "Recent Developments in International Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers." Youth Advocate Program International. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. .
• Smith, David. "Kony 2012 Puts Child Soldiers Back under the Spotlight." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. .
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“Child Soldiers Global Report 2001- Sierra Leone.” refworld. Child Soldiers International, 2001. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
...be seen as an entity that promotes vile results. However, it is imperative to understand that globalization is multilayered and difficult to fully understand. In the case of child soldiers, globalization has played a pertinent role in unifying international organizations in hopes of finding a solution to this “phenomenon”. On the other hand, although certain international organizations such as United Nations have had a prominent role in advocating against child soldiery, for the following reasons, its attempts are insufficient: it lacks the ability to enforce sanctions established within the international community and it does not do enough to recognize the political, social and economic inequalities that are prevalent in most of these fragile states. Therefore, child soldiery, cannot be eradicated until these issues are dealt with on a collective global scale.
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.
“It may seem unimaginable to you that child soldiers exist and yet the reality for many rebel gang leaders, and even state governments, is that there is no more complete end-to-end weapon system in the inventory of war machines than the child soldier… Man has created the ultimate cheap, expendable, yet sophisticated human weapon at the expense of humanity’s own future: its children.”
Kimmel, C. R. (2007). Institutionalized Child Abuse: The Use of Child Soldiers. Interantional Social Work , 50 (6), 740-754.
Wells, Karen C.. "Children and youth at war." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 152. Print.
In order to understand the effects that come with being a child soldier, one must first understand how a child ends up in such a position. To three teenage boys living in a small Indian village, the hope of a better life for themselves and their families as well as the affirmation of employment seemed promising. So pr...
"Studies Explore Effects of War on Former Child Soldiers." Science Daily. Web. 6 May 2014. .
The importance that the WHO attributes to dealing with the psychological traumas of war was demonstrated by the resolution of the World Health Assembly in May 2005, which urged member states “to strengthen action to protect children from and in armed conflict” and the resolution of the WHO Executive Board...
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.
Taylor, Rupert. “The Plight of Child Soldiers.” Suite 101. Media Inc., 11 May 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2011. .
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.