Imagine yourself as a child soldier. You, a tiny young child being forced with weapons in your bare hands. You hear the loud cries of children and the screaming of fellow child comrades. Sweat rolls down your face. Your commander, shouting and yelling for you to get on the battlefield. The pressure is on. One extremely scared boy named Ishmael Beah had faced this traumatizing experience. Ishmael Beah was a child soldier from Sierra Leone that had entered the United States in 1998. At age 11, there was a major civil war going on and Ishmael Beah was forced to fight in this devastating war. Around the world, about 40% of armed forces use children and shape them up into child soldiers. These children are under a lot of pressure into fighting in the war and have no idea what to do. Even if they tried to escape, they would have neither food nor families to protect them or give
In conflicts throughout the world “two million child soldiers have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma” over just the past ten years
What comes to mind when you hear the words ¨Child Soldiers”? Do you think of a child with soldier abilities? Maybe you even think of children who never give up and are true fighters. Child soldiers are children who are conscripted to become a part of armed forces by force. Inside the borders of Afghanistan having children participate in combat is a reality for the civilians and children. In Afghanistan many children are being recruited to join armed groups. The children are being taken from their parents as young as eight years old and they are trained to use guns and fight in warfare. Recruiting child soldiers is a disadvantage in Afghanistan because it violates the children's human rights. First, the children of Afghanistan are forced to become soldiers and serve armed groups. Next, children are given menacing positions in combat.
Every day we bring in more child soldiers without questioning them and asking ourselves what the consequence is. Once we take a child and give them a family and stop watching them is when they will strike. People need to have a open mind when taking in child soldiers because some can be helped and be given amnesty. Many child soldiers see things that they will never be able to come back from. Commanders take kids in their prime learning stage and drill bad habits into their heads. Some believe that kids should just walk free without any questioning. Many children are told to kill or be killed. Many children are scared for their life and only want to live. As a community we don't understand that their are so many kids that they are coming in like an endless flood. With so
In war terrible things happen and one of those things is child soldiers. Children who are recruited and forced to be soldiers in violent conflicts are most definitely victims that deserve forgiveness and should be provided with help. Children are often forced to kill and are used in terrible ways, for example “Iran, which used boys as young as 12 to clear minefields during the Iran-Iraq war. Clearly children don’t want to kill or clear minefields risking their own lives, most of the time in poverty ridden countries parents have to sell their children to survive. Once sold they are exploited in any number of inhumane ways which children should never have to deal with, which is why child soldiers should be given amnesty and are victims.
Being torn apart from their families, watching their fathers being humiliated and killed by rebels, and watching their mothers and sisters being raped and murdered is a terrifying reality for children in the midst of the civil wars in Africa. Some children are unfortunate enough to be recruited as child soldiers. Little boys as young as five years of age are initiated into rebellion groups and drugged, molested, and forced to become killing machines. Being compelled into so much violence at such a young age can mentally destroy children, making them grow into violent men who sexualize women and don’t have any knowledge of the world outside of war. This problem has been going on for years, and is still tearing families apart and ruining the lives of many children. American
The wide spectrum for the desire to own resources in many countries has produced a raging armed conflict. For instance, developing countries like, Africa are the most vulnerable to face constant wars due to the lack of resources. Consequently, a new source is being used to battle the rivalries for the reoccurring conflict. Ismael Beah’s book, A Long Way Gone, reveals in detail that child soldiers are the newest source used in the armed conflict. His book, also demonstrates his experience as a child soldier, fighting for the Sierra Leone Armed Services at the age of twelve. Like Beah, thousands of other children are utilized, as soldiers because they are the most valued agents for both the army and rebel groups, despite the availability to
Many young children under aged have been taken in by the government. They are being held captive tell they are drugged enough and brainwashed to go out and kill or to be killed. They are forced to train to kill under the influence of drugs and they are hardly aware of what they or doing. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because of the absents of their minds and them not being able to process what they are doing. These children are often seen as targets because they are under aged and not able to take responsibility for their actions so they are targeted to be able to kill without punishment. Although many have confessed to these crimes and have been given amnesty even though they knew they were doing the crimes, but they were let off the hook due to drugs. With these drugs many are not aware of what they do and they weren't in the state of mind to make such decisions like not killing others.
I have a motto: Everything is a spectrum. I find that it is true in many cases and it helps me see things not as black and white, but as a gradient between the two. The issue of child soldiers’ prosecution is complex and doesn’t have an easy answer. Child soldiers must be assessed individually for their responsibility for their actions and their threat in the future and should be given options other than freedom or prison.
There is a huge debate that has been going on for years. The topic: do child soldiers deserve amnesty? There are thousands of children out there today who are suffering from being forced to fight. Many may not know it, but these children are forced to live in dirt filled, humid, dry shacks. These are not the best living conditions. The commanders in charge may not realise why they are fighting. In some developing countries they are fighting for a share of the governments gold, money, and other vast resources. When considering the question of child combatants it’s important to be specific, because there are many conditions that follow the debate of this topic. Child soldiers deserve amnesty, because they were already tortured, face
Many child soldiers have been forced into war and should be granted amnesty by the United Nations. Dictators have been turning kids into fighters and weapons for the war. Child soldiers are being held responsible for their actions. There is no definite answer on who is responsible, but the children should not be blamed. Children are being forced to fight in war and deserve amnesty.
In conflicts throughout the world “two million [child soldiers] have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma” over just the past ten years (Invisible Children). Not everyone will be familiar with the issue of the use of child soldiers in wars across the world. Universally, child soldiers are generally frowned upon for use in combat for being inhumane and barbarous. Especially in third world countries, child soldiers are used for conflicts extensively. They are known for committing some of the most brutal acts in wartime in countries like Sierra Leone, Sudan, Afghanistan, etc. Therefore, many government
For over twenty years Joseph Kony and his followers have been kidnapping the children of Uganda. They have become known as child soldiers and are forced to fight for the LRA or Lord’s Resistance Movement (“Lord’s”). The future generation of Uganda is diminishing due to child soldiers. These children are being stripped of their old beliefs, tortured, and are forced to live with the psychological trauma, if they do survive.
You may know that at this current moment, a child, no older than 14, is walking through the streets of a town ravished by the shooting and cries of young, innocent, and affected. They walk through with the euphoria of cocaine and the numbness of shock, an AK-47 in their hands. The child sees families dead, crying, and limping through the streets, reminding them of what they made them do. Vengeance, anger, sadness, grief, sorrow. The thoughts of the drug corrupted mind quickly turn to the thoughts of pleading bystanders as they raise their gun and pull the trigger. Their commander watches over with a pleased smile. Later they are tried for a murder they were forced to do. Amnesty was never an option.
“Human-rights experts estimate that more than 200,000 children worldwide are still being used as combatants, usually against their will” (Gettleman, 2010). Child soldiers and drummer boys may sound like something of the past, yet it is our present. The United Nations and human-rights groups comment that in war-torn countries, rebel groups and governments like Somali send children as young as nine-years-old to the front lines. These groups are “plucking children off soccer fields and turning them into fighters” or manipulating them (Gettleman, 2010). Youths who should be in school are handed a gun and taken advantage of. A military commander from Chad boasts, “if you tell them to kill, they kill.” Most people believe that once a child has been forced into war and that there is no way to correct their negative views. Some believe that these damaged, scarred, scared children don’t deserve help or sympathy. Furthermore, many believe that they are evil criminals who deserve to stay in a jail cell, but these children can be reformed and overcome their struggles, even after manipulation and loss.