Child Soldiers Argumentative Essay

First off, child soldiers are often forced to be recruited. “Often they are abducted at school, on the streets or at home.” ("From Cradle to War." Amnesty International. Amnesty International USA, Web. 3 May 2016.) Almost all child soldiers are forced to do things as a soldier that they wouldn’t actually do, such as hurt or kill others. So although some child soldiers want to hurt or kill, most don’t want to. So obviously, most child soldiers are forced to do bad things that they don’t want to do, and wouldn’t do if they hadn’t become a soldier.

The article, Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted for Their Crimes, proves this when the author confirms, “Children are often desired as recruits because they can

I believe that child soldiers are victims and should not be punished by their actions.

“Children often volunteer because their family members have been gunned down by paramilitaries or other groups,” said Marco Puzon of UNICEF East Asia about the armed conflict in the Philippines (8). Of course child soldiers might be doing this due to their families dying, but why turn around and do the same thing to other people's family. They had a choice and they made the one that could ruin peoples lives. “Child soldiers are often exposed to extreme levels of violence that result in lifelong emotional and psychological scars,”(8) says Tom Malinowski. Malinowski proves a point.

Thousands of children all over the world are being forced to become child soldiers. They are being forced to either become a soldier or die. They are being held against their will, and being forced to take drugs just to kill others. This needs to stop. These children don’t even know that they are fighting on the wrong side.

At eight no kid would want to be subject to this way of life but some know no different ways of young life, this is what they are taught and what they assume is correct. They are brainwashed and in place of normal childhood behavior is taught aggression and violence. Rachel Nuwer from the smithsonian says ¨Teenage brains are like soft, impressionable play dough.” meaning those teen years are crucial to their developing traits and brain. Another source says the most important time of child's life to become who they are is the age of 4-9 years of age. This means they need ethics and morals to continue on but child soldiers are giving the opposite of that so how do you expect them to go down the path of right and not wrong when to them it's all a messed up maze? Someone opposed to the amnesty of young soldiers could consider this very dangerous and an obvious reason to ban the amnesty the deserve. Others see it as a chance to remold these young people's mind and put them back on the right path and off the path of destruction. The soldiers would be fully tested to see if there is permanent damage from this awful experience. Just because some may be harmful doesn't mean all shouldn't get a chance at a new and better

Once they are recruited they are filled with drugs that alter their brains into making them believe that what they are doing is the right thing to do. The author of Child Soldiers, Prosecution indicates that the commanders of child soldiers drug the children to brainwash them. “The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and enable them to commit acts they would not ordinarily commit. ”(10) In a later paragraph of Child Soldiers, Prosecution the author writes “Once children are recruited into the military it is also difficult for them to leave because they become dependent

Child soldiers are not at fault for killing people. To support my claim, I have a quote from a commander in Chad, Africa. “They don’t complain, they don’t expect to be paid, and if you tell them to kill, they kill.” (Gettleman, 1) The quote is saying that since they’re young, they listen to the bigger people and do what they’re told, they don’t know any better. Most child soldiers just need a shelter and safety because everything they had is gone. The children are given drugs that cause them to kill people. These kids are brainwashed, and if anyone’s going to take the blame of these deaths, it’s the commanders. Most of the time the children will kill against their will, and they might even be sold by their family from hunger and poverty.

This happens because there are lots of children to make soldiers and they are easily forced into submission. How do children become child soldiers? There are multiple reasons that they became child soldiers. It is against many people’s beliefs (including the children’s) to let children fight. Children can be very easily intimidated.

While there were some problems during the World Wars, today there is no significant problem with child soldiers in powerful countries, such as the USA, Britain, and other UN countries. Sadly, there are countries that do use children, including Somalia, Iraq, Mali, and others in Africa and around the Middle East. The logic behind why children are chosen for soldiers is sad and disturbing. Children are recruited because they can be persuaded to fight for things

If child soldiers should not be held accountable for their actions, then neither should adults. Which, could be a reason why society continues, time and time again, to charge children as adults in times of war. So that they can punish both parties without looking like the bad guy. Is that just, to punish children for fighting in a war? These children have already gone through very, very hard times. Most of their parents have died, and then they were threatened to either join the war efforts or die. Once the children join the war, they are forced to do drugs and kill people. Unlike most adult soldiers who join for a “cause.” Therefore, the reason why we shouldn’t punish children for wars they can’t control, is because they never willingly went to war, they’ve gone through sufferable trauma, and it’d be more helpful if people listened to them instead of punishing them automatically.

Child soldiers throughout third world areas should receive amnesty for their wrong doings. Many of them had no choice or chance to do what they believed was right. Most of these children were forced to fight by the officers and the leaders. There is also the counter argument that by providing these kids amnesty and allowing them to get away with their crimes, more kids will be thrown into battle because there is no punishment. In some cases for these child soldiers, it was either kill or be killed, and they did not want to die. Child soldiers should be granted amnesty and forgiven of their war crimes.

Child soldiers, each of them are unique individuals each with their own backstory, believes, and level of participation in the war; therefore, they should be treated as so. A ‘one size fits all’ policy would not be fair, and so we should have each child soldier go through a recovery process that includes psychological evaluation, therapy, medical treatment, and an assimilation into a new life. This would help them heal, but from that we can also find those who still strongly believe in their terrorist’s group message and those who have completely moved on from it. For justice to be done, we will give freedom for those who deserve it and prosecute those who deserve it.

Well because Child soldiers have been responsible for some of the most brutal and violent acts in wartime. Under most domestic laws the age of criminal responsibility is much lower than 18, in the USA criminal responsibility can be as low as age 8. If a child can be convinced for murder under national law they should also be held responsible for international crimes. In my opinion there should be no exception simply because the crimes occurred in

This includes drugging and abusing them. This shows in the article “Child Soldiers: Victims or Perpetrators?” where it says “More often than not children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol. The drugs and alcohol make the children become more compliant enabling them to commit atrocities which they never would have before.” This shows how army commanders are drugging kids in order to brainwash them and get them to do stuff for the army. This shows again in the same article where it then says “Children are often forced into fighting and have little choice over whether or not they enlist.” This shows how they don’t even have a say when they go to war and are tortured or threatened into joining the army. While I have views towards these tortured and brainwashed kids, their have also been promises that the commander has