Are child soldiers victims or perpetrators?
Everywhere around the world children are being locked up in jails, and detained to murders and crimes they were forced to enact. Child Soldiers are victims because they were not offered a choice, except life or death and children are easily tricked by commanders and other adults.
The first reason child soldiers are victims is because they are too young to understand. For example, children do things because they know the consequences but they don't fully understand. According to the essay “Child soldiers: victims or perpetrators” the author states “At a young age it is often easy to become intimidated and children often don’t think of the bigger picture, in other words the consequences of their actions.” This means that child soldiers do things and don't think
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Some people believe the kids are responsible for their actions, but now because they, are forced. According to the essay “ Child soldiers: victims or perpetrators” the author states” On one side of the argument, many believe that child soldiers are not morally responsible for the actions they perform.” This means the child soldiers don't have any fault. Also, child soldiers have no responsibility for what they do because they can't even fight back. People believe he just did that because the wanted to, but actually they were forced into it. According to the essay “Hope for Uganda's Child Soldiers?” the author says “Just 14 when he was abducted near his northern Ugandan house by the Lord's Resistance Army, he never said a word to anyone about escaping from the rebels' world-renowned campaign of terror, which included cutting off the lips, ears and noses of civilians as they fought the government.” This means the child did not join the army by choice; he was kidnapped. Plus, he was only 14. It was ominous because they made the kid cut of their lips, ears and
First of all, child soldiers go to extremes for such little things like having to ask for thing to be given to them. In the book by Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone, an actual child soldier who is now rehabilitated shared his experiences through the war in Sierra Leone. It says, “We placed a bucket over the cook’s head and pushed him around the kitchen until he burned his hand on a hot boiling pot and agreed to put more milk in our tea,” (Beah, 2007). This demonstrates how dangerous they can be to innocent people, even those that are trying to help. They hurt those no matter what, for their own desires and sometimes they just do this for their own entertainment.
In the end, when the conflict has cooled, the question rises, who was to blame for all the death? Most obviously were the leaders of each army and/or the source of the disturbance of peace, but can you blame an ex-child-soldier for their atrocities? People can’t simply accuse a former child soldier for crimes that they suffered a “childhood” where there was no other choice. There are probably many variables that went into making a child into a killer as proven in the article, a former child soldier will stand trial in The Hague for war crimes, “Clearly, the traumatized psychology of the child soldier will be part of Ongwen's defense when his trial begins at the ICC” (3), as this quote demonstrates how very little children probably ever joined the army willfully without trauma or fear for one’s self or someone close to them. The only time that a child soldier can be justifiably accused of war crimes is if they killed without trauma or fear and/or a continuous record of violence even after the
To start off, there was never any justice done for the kids who were child soldiers because people weren’t paid for certain jobs they did because of their age. This idea was supported in the article “Armed & Underaged” by
What do thousands of kids do when they are scared that they will be charged with war crimes if they escape from there battle? That is what child soldiers across the world, ask themselves every day. Because they do not know if they should risk their lives to get amnesty that is promised to them, just to be thrown in jail. Because there are rules that the child soldiers don't even know, so it is a gamble they have to bid their lives on.. Child soldiers deserve amnesty because they are drugged and brainwashed, they are kidnaped or forced to join, also they are killed and abused for little to no reason.
Many children join to have an identity or feel apart of something.in the article Understanding the Recruitment of Child Soldiers in Africa by Anne-Lynn Dudenhoefer, it states “Pull factors include – paradoxically – seeking security in fighting forces, provision of food, a sense of belonging and ideology or group identity,” this shows that some children join the war to feel as if they are apart of a community fighting for a common cause
The Problem of Child Soldiers “Since 2010, there’s been a 34% rise in the number of children living in conflict-affected areas, plus a staggering 170% rise in the number of reported grave violations committed against children in conflict.”(“Child Soldiers: Childhood's End”). This quote relates to my thesis statement because it shows the percentage of child soldiers that are in danger at a very young age and the rate of children in danger is still on the rise. Child Soldiers are young children that are put into war zones and danger zones at a very young age and have no control over what is going on. In A Long Way Gone the children got brained wash but doing drugs and not knowing they were, and being killed at too young of age by also being introduced to violence at too young of an age.
This quote shows that many of them don’t have any interest in being soldiers, so they don’t want to be violent. “They are easily manipulated.” (Gettleman) Since they are only kids, we shouldn’t expect them to be mature enough to think about what they are doing as soldiers. Besides, most child soldiers don’t
This literary piece “The Making and Unmaking of a child soldier” by Ishmael Beah, unravels aspects of the world often looked over. The book opens an eye on how child soldiers are used as spawn for civil wars for ruthless warlords over drug empires in Sierra Leone. Children are forced to become soldiers to serve for military and save their country, Sierra Leone. Child soldiers are also forced to work and there are many different jobs which are given to child soldiers.
In the article Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted For Their Crimes it says,“if a child is under the age of 15 is considered too young to fight then he or she must be considered too young to be held criminally responsible for serious violations.” This explains how that they are easily manipulated and targeted because they aren't legally responsible to take responsibility for their actions. Each child were held in hostilities and couldn't have to opportunity to not fight. Also in Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted For Their Crimes a report within the article it says, “ The report says child soldiers should not be prosecuted simply for the association with an armed group of having participation in hostilities.” Children are targeted to be recruited to war because nobody can take responsibility for the
The author of Child Soldiers states, “ … kill innocent civilians, other children, and even their own families.” ( ) Child soldiers had not only killed innocent civilians, they had also killed their own families. They did not even have the heart to try to something else about it. From the same article it says, “Over the course of the past decades, child soldiers have been responsible for some of the most brutal acts in
There are thousands of child soldiers in the world today. These children are stripped from their homes and sent to fight with people twice their age. Many haven’t even had their 11th birthday yet. Although some people say that child soldiers should not be granted amnesty, evidence shows that these children do deserve amnesty, except in cases when the former soldiers show violent behavior after war because children are forced to commit acts of violence and are force addicted to illegal substances so they won’t want to leave.
Also, according to the Invisible Children Association, “...child soldiers are often forced into fighting through false promises. They are also forced into fighting through drugs and alcohol.” This shows how they are forced and they think what they are doing is okay because they are brainwashed. These children are being misled and sometimes threatened to commit horrible acts, that they wouldn’t do if they knew what was happening. But these children were never taught what is right and wrong.
In the article, "Child Soldiers Should Be Prosecuted", the text says "Children are often forced into fighting and have little choice over whether or not they enlist. After that, they are following orders of adults rather than acting on their own free will. The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children
Assignment page Video Where many children all over the world merrily and freely live under the protection of the law, for others, this is a distant reality, they live in a world where they’re battling poverty, stripped of their childhood and basic human rights are expunged, they’re the innocent victims of conflict, and war is made to seem their one and only duty, not to mention that these are children no more than 10 years of age. They are put into a situation where it’s to kill or be killed. 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 in any capacity.” Since the past 15 years, child soldiers are being used in almost every region of the world. Unlike most children, who go to school, they’re abducted from their families and forced into becoming a child soldier, where living conditions are beyond imaginable.
However, what they’ve done doesn 't come with the fact that child soldiers live with rugged conditions, drugs, the influence of others. Even though some people believe that child soldier’s shouldn’t be given amnesty, overall, it becomes clear that these children should be given amnesty because many adults influence their actions, they live in inferior conditions, and children who enlist as child soldiers enlist for multiple reasons other than violence. First, in many areas, it can be clearly seen that child soldiers are influenced by their superiors. No one is ever born dangerous, it’s always their parents and environment that shape a child into who they are.