Should Child Soldiers Be Banned Internationally? “What I have learned from my experiences is that revenge is not good. I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…” (Beah 199). Ishmael talks about his experiences of being a child soldier, and why he wanted to become one. Now, he compares himself from when he was a soldier to how he is doing in rehabilitation. In the book A Long Way Gone, the story follows Ishmael and his experience being a child soldier. For example, child soldiers experience things that mature them at a young …show more content…
The article “Child and Adolescent Mental Health Problems in Nepal” talks about how post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, affects people. The article says that “Children from poorer backgrounds are likely to have a greater exposure to child labor, exploitation and human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Moreover, the changing family structure due to divorce, separation from joint family to nuclear family, parental neglect and parental substance abuse also put children at a higher risk of psychosocial and mental health problems” (Chaulagain). Normally, one wouldn’t want to hang around with one that has PTSD. Children who did not have a good childhood when they were growing up are more likely to struggle growing up. They can experience child labor, human trafficking, and sexual abuse at a young age. Child soldiers can have a hard time trusting people because of their experiences in the war. Because children have shown signs of PTSD, child soldiers should be banned …show more content…
The author of the article “Social Competence” explains why and some signs of social skills in children and adolescents alike. They talk about “When children experience serious difficulties in the domain of peer relations, the development of social competencies may be threatened. Rejection or victimization by peers may become a source of significant stress to children, contributing to feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem….Exclusion from a normal peer group can deprive rejected children of opportunities to develop adaptive social behaviors. Hence, the social competence deficits of rejected children may increase over time, along with feelings of social anxiety and inadequacy” (“Social Competence”). Normally, when one has poor social skills, they lack the ability to befriend others. For child soldiers, they would have poor social skills because they would not know how to react around others that were not personally involved in the war. Since these child soldiers fought alongside adolescent soldiers in the war, they might have a different way of speaking or doing things with others their age in the real world. Poor social skills would mean being an outcast, being left out, playing alone, etc. Finally, children need social skills to develop, and exposing them to the world in a poor way can affect their social
In the book, Beah talks about being rude and abusive to the staff at the rehab camp because he was angry to be there. Child Soldiers should be banned because if they were never put into the place of being forced into a war they would not have these social problems. Also, due to the traumatic things these children have endured, they will, unfortunately, have to go the rest of their life struggling to fit in socially. Due to the harmful impact on children's social skills from the war, child soldiers should be
In the novel, “A Long Way Gone,” Ishmael Beah suffers from PTSD due to the exposure to war at such a young age and the rehabilitation process. Ishmael was exposed to guns, drugs and other types of violent acts due to the war at the age of 12. As time went by, Ishmael lost his family and slowly his friends too. Ishmael was traumatized from all the violence he experienced due to the war approaching his village. He had been forced by the Sierra Leone Armed Forces to serve as a child soldier during a civil war and “It was not easy being a soldier, but we just had to do it.
In the world today, there is more than 25 countries who still actively use children in warfare. Child soldiers are human beings under the age of 18 who participate in military actions. They are evidently cheaper to maintain and to train than adult soldiers. They are also more loyal and obedient because the young respect their elders. It has been noted that estimately, 300 thousand children were recruited to fight and perform in war (Child Soldiers.)
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
In the memoir, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Ishmael became a child soldier at the age of twelve, after three years of being in the war Ishmael was discharged from the war and went into rehabilitation. Ishmael was showing signs of PTSD for a long time. In this passage, Beah is showing signs of PTSD by saying “I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories. Memories I sometimes wish I could wash away, even though I am aware that they are an important of what my life is; who I am now.
Ishmael is explaining his past to try and abolish child soldiers. He was drug addicted, and experienced multiple violations of human rights. Ishmael, like other soldiers, experiences hallucinations and the nightmares still can haunt him. Being a child soldier leaves a huge scar on a person. During the war when they ran out of soldiers, child soldiers were often put into the field as a last resort.
The first reason i think that child soldiers should not be prosecuted is because while kids are young they don 't have much control over what they get to do, lots of kids have to do what their parent or guardian says, and i am sure that when kids get recruited they have no choice but to go. In an article i read said that when a child soldier is recruited that they have no choice but to join. This matches with the story because it explains that kids don’t have a choice but to join when they get recruited. Kids also don’t get to choose what
History has proven that the use of child soldiers should be banned
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.
Child soldiers need to be banned from making children's mental health worse and unstable. Children are faced with life threatening situations everyday, but not like these situations. Child soldiers are faced with life or death situations every day. Former children can be put into wars and battles without knowing ahead of time. These children can suffer from abuse and other cruelties from serving.
Some believe that all child soldiers should be punished for their crimes since they still committed murder, and they
The most important reason why child soldiers should be granted amnesty is because it is not their will to commit these crimes, it is simply being forced into act they would never commit unless their life was on the line. Emma Gordon, writer on E-international Relations Students says, “Children are often abducted at a young age, brutally initiated and forced to commit heinous atrocities, they are undoubtedly victims of these conflicts” (2011). Gordon uses the word “abducted” which shows that most if not all of child soldiers don’t chose to live that way. Additionally, the bulletin health
The definition of a child solider is any child under the age of 18 recruited by a state or non-state armed group and used as fighters, cooks, suicide bombers, and human shields among other things. However regardless of what role the child plays, it is a clear violation of the fourth and twenty-sixth articles. The fourth states that there shall be no slavery of any person while the twenty-sixth protects the right of people (specifically children in this case) to get an education. The former applies to child soldiers as most of them are press ganged into joining and are then treated horribly. In the book When Elephants Fight by Eric Walters and Adrian Bradbury goes into detail about the reality of child soldiers in western Africa.
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.
Have you ever imagined growing up on a life of drugs, war, crime, and seeing things that many adults won’t dare to ever see? In many countries around the world, this is what many children have to deal with. There is an occurring issue of people across Africa and parts of Asia using children as soldiers in war. They act and take upon the roles of real combatants, causing the people of the public to act in different ways. It’s been well documented that these children have used guns and war tactics, and committed various illegal and illicit acts of violence.