Child Soldiers in Miliary Services

When you picture a child, do you picture a once innocent but now traumatized, once caring but now bloodthirsty child carrying a gun taller than himself. This is what a child soldier would look like. These kids are As of 2013, there are approximately 300,000 children serving in militaries or in radical groups around the world. They are either volunteered or have been taken by force into these militias, but most who volunteer have lost their family to the tragedies of war. These children are victims. Victims of abuse and victims of violence. They have been abandoned on the streets with nowhere to go but the military, the children are exposed to terrible things, and some of the girls who are in these fighting groups are being abused and harassed.

One injustice facing the world today is the use of child soldiers. According to child-soldiers.org, a child soldier is “any person below eighteen years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity…” Child soldiers do not only include the combatants. There are also child soldiers in noncombatant positions. The most dreadful injustice is having child soldiers, because of the amount of children involved, the recruitment they face, their war experiences, and post battle feelings or events.

Every day, thousands of children around the world wake up in the morning, grab their shoes and backpacks and head to school. Thousands of other children pick up their AK-47s and head to battle. The issue of child soldiers is as complex as it is atrocious, and its heinous nature has prompted the international community to pour vast amounts of time and resources into finding a solution. Despite humanitarian and government organizations’ best efforts, the numbers have remained relatively static over the decades, with over 300,000 underage combatants worldwide (Vautravers 96). Many scholars have declared the U.N.’s current policy as a failure and offered up proposals of their own, ranging from placement of sanctions to international

Ever since ancient Rome, children were used as soldiers in the army but as the world grew and matured, the use of people under the age of eighteen is now forbidden from use in armed conflict. However, places of major conflict, like Africa and Southeast Asia, still use children in their armies despite the international law against it. The children are often times grabbed right out of school unexpectedly and forced into joining rebel groups with little to no warnings at all. The usage of child soldiers grows in number each year with over two hundred thousand children in active duty today. Within those numbers, the children commit crimes like the torture of prisoners of war and civilians, and even other child soldiers. Even though child soldiers

These young soldiers seem to not be committed into committing war crimes, but one of their commitments is without a doubt, survival. However, in order for them to accomplish this, they unfortunately have to commit these terrible atrocities to not get killed. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of these children have little to no option whether or not they want to be serving, they are forcibly recruited. Jeffrey Gettle, author of article entitled Armed and Underage argues this idea well with his quote, “purchased, kidnapped, or terrorized” are some of the ways these girls and boys become child soldiers (2009). This quote demonstrates the types of way they are involuntarily placed in the army and when they are in the field, many types abusement become present like when they oppose given orders.

Thinking about children holding guns and killing people makes us realize how corrupt the world is. In many countries around the world children are used for armies; they may be national Armies or opponents of government armies. If we think of how many children are being recruited to work voluntary or involuntary in armies we could not even guess, because around 300,000 children are active soldiers younger than eighteen years old. That is an approximation; it could be more or less, all we know is there are hundreds of children suffering from hunger and lack of love. So we ask ourselves why do they do this? Are they obligated? Are there economic reasons or just the desire of want? Many are forced and others are just volunteers.

Her report on the impact of war on children is considered highly dignified and influential when tackling child soldiers. Her work was constantly cited post publication in 2001. Of which is the most important of her research is the recommendations she listed, such as monitoring and reporting violations of child rights, health, psychosocial well-being and educational programs as well as developing a global campaign to be launched to stop the recruitment of children under age 18 into armed forces and to ensure that governments and opposition forces demobilize all such children immediately and incorporate their needs into peace agreements and demobilization programmes (Machel 22, 53, 58). Of this, Sierra Leone’s truth commission was able to accomplish reporting the violations of children’s rights as well as the start up of educational programs for

War has affected many people, and in those countries that war has reached it has left many obstacles to overcome. Children and their parents have been affected greatly. Children that live in poverty, children that have lost a parent, lack basic necessities, are often forced to fight in wars and become child soldiers. Children are of described as someone who is under the age of eighteen, but in reality a child is a young person dependent on an adult. Child soldiers are faced with very difficult decisions that can be very traumatic to someone at that age.Child soldiers are often taken advantage of, being sexually assaulted or have been forced to kill people. They can be haunted by the decisions they make during their time as a soldier and

Child Solders are a breach of Human Rights and is an issue in many countries. There are many organizations that try to help these kids, but unfortunately this trend is often looked past by people living in the developed world. This report will discuss the sad truths behind the use of child soldiers, where in the world they are predominantly used, and why this issue is worth all the attention, if not more attention.

Cregan & Cutherbert explains how, the lived experienced of child soldier is more complex than the polarized representation in the media (2014, pg. 93). In much of the media coverage, around responsibility of the child’s actions come up. Media fails to show child soldiers agency within these circumstance, and only show these children as vulnerable and helpless. Child soldier are forced into murderer however are labeled dangerous and disorderly (Denov, 2012,pg. 235). These depictions are highly racialized and imbued with stereotypes, depictions of child soldiers as ‘dangerous’ and ‘disorderly’ work to underscore the perceived moral superiority of the North compared to the ‘savage’ South (Macmillan, 2009).” As Denov suggested states, portraying child soldiers as largely threatening, and uncivilised, the bulk of international news reporting, and much of academic and policy-oriented discourse, has tended to ‘pathologies’ children in armed conflict (2012, pg. 236) . The media plays a central role in how society views child soldiers and it is important to be critical of this

One of the worlds major humanitarian problems is the use of children as soldiers. Predominantly seen in African countries, the use of these children as soldiers has and will keep changing millions of lives for the worse.

Child soldiers are defined as "any person under the age of eighteen associated with an armed forced or group in any capacity"(Posttraumatic Resilience” 1096). This phenomenon, that is present on all global continents, affects 250,000 children per year and takes away a child's “fundamental human right to education, health and development” (Posttraumatic Resilience” 1096, Tienfenbrun 418-419). These children, who must struggle for survival, are regularly exposed to personality shaping abusive situations. This brings into question the dilemma of who is responsible for a child soldiers’ actions (420). Would it be the child or the individuals who made them?  Moreover, it also begs the question of how this may impact their reintegrate into society.

In today’s day and age, children from all over the world are real soldiers in conflicts instead of playing toy soldiers. These children are being denied their childhood and instead are given a violent and gruesome role to play in brutal conflicts. These children are fighting wars that they had no responsibility in creating. Children are fighting in wars created by their elders. Children are replacing their toys with guns, like AK-47’s and instead of having a chance to attend

“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.

Children do not have the same responsibilities in society as adults. They cannot vote, drink or drive. And, of course, they are not punished in the same way as adults for crimes they commit, because they are judged not to possess the moral foundation and grounding that would allow them to understand fully the consequences of their actions. Child soldiers are distinct from other armed forces because they are both minors and not complicit in their fate.3 The reality of a child soldier’s life is far removed from that of a normal child. As many as 40 percent of child soldiers are recruited by force, and most others cite hunger, poverty and desperation of life in conflict zones as their reason for joining.4 Fewer than 10 percent are ever paid.5 Their corrupted childhood development precludes any ability for moral judgment. In short, they are not only as ‘innocent’ as any well-fed, first world child, but child soldiers have been removed from their agency. We can envision a scenario in which the ‘correct’ moral judgment would be to sacrifice the life of an adult in favor of the life of a child. The question becomes whether a child’s ‘innocence’ and lack of agency overrides the right of combat troops or peacekeepers to self-defense in this