Argumentative Essay On Child Soldiers

They include messengers, porters, spies, and sex slaves. So great is the diversity of tasks that many advocates now prefer the less punchy but more accurate term, children associated with fighting forces.” (Gates para 5) Why should an undereducated child who hasn’t committed any crimes besides being involved in a war that they didn’t want to fight be prosecuted for anything. Another example of how some child soldiers aren’t killers comes from an article titled “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety.” this article says that not all child soldiers murder but some cook or as said in the article “Most girls are forcibly abducted and given roles as cooks, porters, spies, “wives”, and in combat, says Susan McKay of the University of Wyoming, who has interviewed girl soldiers throughout central Africa.” (Leahy para 10) clearly not all children in combat have committed crimes but are rather victims and shouldn’t be prosecuted for being in the military but should be helped and given a second chance at their

Historically, there have been child soldiers even in the United States. Bugler John Cook, served in the U.S. Army at the age of 15 and received the Medal of Honor for his acts during the American Civil War (“Child Soldiers Are Unfortunately Nothing New”). However, the use of child soldiers has dramatically declined in western civilization during the 20th century. Surprisingly, the recent use of child soldiers in Africa is still seen in media today.

It’s estimated 300,000 child soldiers are still in the world today in at least twenty countries. Sierra Leone was just one of them. Forcing AK-47’s on children in the midst of war (1991-2002.) Adults once forced to be a child soldiers still have vivid, traumatic memories from their brainwashed childhood. They have their innocent childhoods taken away from being on the front lines of combat & have to grieve for the separation from their family. It’s key for everyone to understand what children are going through in other countries not as fortunate as yours.

Recently, two million children have died over the past ten years due to becoming a child soldier. A huge deplorable development that has extended recently is the increase of child soldiers. Children are constantly being used as soldiers for various reasons. In some countries, there are more child soldiers than they are adults because children are more compliant. Children have been exploited as soldiers because they are being recruited to do a violent action, it is difficult for them to, later on, assimilate back to their lives, and child soldiers are regularly used in developing countries.

War, in and of itself, is an atrocity, but it becomes even more abhorrent when children are pulled into the conflict. Unfortunately, some military groups find children useful in the war effort. The wars these children are forced to be part of often leave wounds--both psychological and physical, but these kids can be healed, at least to an extent, and rehabilitated. Children are often used in war because it is easy and efficient to use them as compared to their adult counterparts. For one, children are easy to control, coerce, and indoctrinate.

No one wants their childhood to be utterly destroyed or have their family taken away from them in the blink of an eye, without the chance to even say one last goodbye. The odd chance of that happening to us, here in America, is slim to none. In Sierra Leone on the other hand, along with many other parts of Africa, child soldiers are being put to use in armies. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, the recruitment of child soldiers, African living situations, and the psychological trauma endured by the children deals with the issue of child soldiers.

These Children are being exploited from their families and then taking into custody. Human service reports that children are being brutally recruitment, by being taken away and often being harassed by older people. This is a society impact, this is a big problem, for the global impact, which can work together to reintegrate, child soldiers back to society to make them, a productive individuals. All around the world every child has dream of going to school and learning about everything, but in some states that's not the case they are compelled to become instruments of war kill, and to be killed. Child soldiers are being forced to give violent expression towards adults, they are often thought that adults are the main enemy and they are always thought that they are alone in this

It is easy to see that child soldiers have been involved all around the world for centuries. Singer states “by the twenty-first century child soldiers had served in significant numbers on ever continent of the globe but Antarctica.” From 1998 to 2001 the countries that were active combatants were Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, Algeria, Chad, Republic of Congo, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, East Timor, Philippians, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and lastly the Russian Federation. Noticeably a lot of these listed countries are African. Singer writes, “Africa is often considered to be at the epicenter

Child soldiers are not recruited. Recruiting implies that the person being recruited actually has a choice. Child soldiers are not given a choice. They are plucked from their homes and forced to carry a rifle, take narcotics,

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

Greater attention and action against the worldwide use of child soldiers need to be addressed by the world community because children are being forced out of their homes, traumatized by all of the killings and dying surrounding them and they are being starved and beaten. Today, there are thousands of children involved in these armed jobs all around the world. There is an estimated 3,000 children, many under 16, including 500 girls in the army. (“Child Soldiers”)

Child Soldiers is a major global issue which is affecting todays 21st century. Many Countries around the world are illegally operating child soldiers such as Burma and Sierra Leone currently there is a crisis as many more children are being subject to this cruel act. Many world media and Non-governmental organisations such as the guardian and Human rights watch have reported thousands of child soldiers in Myanmar Burma. The Convention on the rights of a child and the Universal declaration of human rights strictly prohibits children in armed conflict further the United Nations further prohibits children in armed conflicts. The International Criminal Court has previously dealt with Thomas Labunga a leader of the liberation forces of the Congo whom used children as young as 10 in his military . However these measures have not been effective as there are still children in conflict due to state sovereignty.

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.

Around 120,000 adolescent children are now engaged in conflicts throughout Africa (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 4). In Sudan, for instance, thousands of children, some as young as 12, were recruited against their will into separatist and government groups (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 5). Thousands more children have been enlisted into the armed forces throughout Asia and the Pacific. The most significant numbers are in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and recently, Cambodia. Myanmar, a country in Asia, has some of the most child soldiers throughout the world, with children being recruited into both non-government and government armed forces (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 6). The number of child soldiers has been decreasing annually, but these children are still being taken against their will.

An examination of death penalty sentencing procedures within the American criminal justice system suggests that the legal and moral authority to execute condemned criminals granted to a government has been tested time and time again, only to be reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. While the 1960's saw a series of failed attempts to ban the practice, launched by death penalty abolitionist groups firm in their belief that murder can never be justified, it was not until 1972 that a majority of Supreme Court justices ruled to prohibit state-mandated executions. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing a forum for informed discussion regarding capital punishment, "the issue of arbitrariness of the death penalty was brought before the Supreme Court in 1972 in Furman v. Georgia, Jackson v. Georgia, and Branch v. Texas (known collectively as the landmark case Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238))" (DPIC, 2013). While the court previously ruled in Crampton v. Ohio and McGautha v. California that the application of capital punishment did not result in arbitrary and capricious sentencing, the 1972 Furman case challenged the Eight Amendment, whereas the McGautha case cited the Fourteenth Amendment's due process provision.