...Day-to-day, somewhere there are child soldiers fighting and losing their lives. The start of the era originated in Ancient Greece. Over the years, using child soldiers has grown much greater than when it originally started. Africa is the top continent for using child soldiers. What are child soldiers and what do they do exactly? Child soldiers are usually between ages 5 up to 18, either drafted or volunteered for the armed services. They are used to kill and execute crimes. Child soldiers are used instead of adult soldiers because it is quite effortless to manipulate them. Former President George W. Bush made the Child Soldiers Prevention Act into a law. The act was to illegalize armed forces that use child soldiers. Unfortunately, the act...
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...Child soldiers essay draft Some children all over the world each day are forced to do things that they do not want to do to stay alive. They ask themselves questions every day such as, will I eat today? Where will I sleep? Am I going to kill anyone? Any child who has been through this deserves amnesty when they are drugged, abused and forced to do things they do not want to do to stay alive. But more thought should be put into child soldier amnesty cases when they choose to become a soldier and are old enough to understand what they are doing. Children between the ages of nine and fifteen are taken into captivity, drugged and abused because of simple mistakes that they make as a soldier. According to an article written by UNICEF, many...
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...Child soldiers responsible for capital crimes should not be allowed amnesty unless it has been proven that they were forced to become a soldier. If given immunity, victims would not receive justice. Victims would have to live knowing the killer of their friend or family member did not receive punishment. Also, many of these children become soldiers because they chose to. Some of them plan missions and war crimes. If there is no consequence for being a youth fighter, given the fact they received immunity, commands will recruit and use more of them. This will just increase the numbers of child soldiers. Child soldiers do not deserve amnesty, they need to be held accountable for their actions. Additionally, forgiving child soldiers denies victims...
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...Child Soldiers: Criminals or Victims? Children are known as the innocence of society. The ever growing problem of child soldiers is a saddening and striking one. They are clearly victims of a much larger game ran by militias and corrupt governments, they are not wrong, but are wronged. Children are pushed and nudged into taking up arms through different ways .In war torn regions, Children are grown up and raised with the plague of war, it is all they know. They are not accustomed to regular childhoods, and they have no opportunities, so children tend to follow what they see, which is war and bloodshed. Militia leaders in third world countries tend to drug children and force them into being soldiers, upon refusal they even threaten and kill...
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...millions, of soldiers, still alive today, who were forced into war as children. Because many of these child soldiers were forced into warfare and had no choice but to partake in the violence, they should be granted amnesty by the United Nations. Additionally, many readers believe that these soldiers are too young to be held accountable for the actions they were forced into. Furthermore, these warriors had only two options when facing tough situations: cooperate with their commanders or be brutally murdered for not fighting. Perhaps the most important piece of information on this topic is the fact that child soldiers had no choice but to comply with orders given to them. Oftentimes, they “are pushed by their adult commanders into perpetrating atrocities” through threats of mistreatment, torture, or even the murder of loved ones (Johannesburg, paragraph 8). In more extreme cases, if the children refused to fight, they were seen as ‘worthless’ or ‘inferior’ and killed. Moreover, child soldiers were taken advantage of by their chiefs through deception. Even further, they were often scared into believing that daily fighting, murdering, and death were the societal norm for everyone, which is a foggy perception of the world....
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...Imagine, a small child, born and raised in a country of conflict, holding a fully automatic rifle, ready to fight in war, this is a picture of a child soldier. The media does not show you the real news of innocent children fighting for their lives to survive and elude the conflict for a better life and future. The silence of the people continues to support the serious issue, passively letting it happen to vulnerable children who are in need of care and help. Children are forced by their leaders/commanders to do the unimaginable such as killing innocent civilians, other children, and even their families, scarring them for life. These young soldiers are deprived from a normal childhood and education as most children have in today's society. Many...
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...William Insley Dr. Barbara B. Booker English Composition I 28 February 2017 Child Soldiers: Entering Society with a Broken Psyche Child soldiers: an image burnt into all of our minds. Young boys looking about eight-years-old, armed with assault rifles, and grimacing menacingly into the camera. Children are unanimously loved: even if you do not care for children, you will stop and smile at children as they pass. But what happens if that child is armed with an automatic weapon? Our attitudes towards them change tremendously. According to a study done between April 2004 and October 2007, child soldiers are found in 19 countries and territories (Denov 280). In global news circles, the hundreds of thousands of children that have been ripped away...
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...The issue of whether we should give child soldiers amnesty has been debated many times throughout the years. It is an important issue because people don't want children out on the streets who know how to kill people in many different ways. Children as young as nine could be out there and know how to use a gun. A variety of arguments have been put towards this issue. Ultimately, these children should be given amnesty. Commanders are getting child soldiers addicted to drugs and alcohol and bending them against their will. "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." (“Child Soldiers:...”) These children do not have a choice and are being forced to drink and do drugs. Sometimes, the drugs make them want to stay. "The drugs, often cocaine mixed with gunpowder, brainwash the children to the point where they would rather not escape from the horror unraveling around them." (“Child Soldiers:...”) They do not understand what's happening to them and they can not make it stop....
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...predominantly associated with one word, death. Even though there have been at least 12 countries with a documented history of child soldiers this paper will focus on one country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. The research will describe how and why children are becoming soldiers, what life is like for child soldiers, how some children avoid becoming soldiers, and what happens to the soldiers when they become free. Since 1997 the Democratic Republic of Congo has become something like a never-ending nightmare, one of the bloodiest conflicts since World War II, causing more than five million deaths. It seems inconceivable that the biggest country in sub-Saharan Africa and on paper one of the richest, packed with copper, diamonds and gold, as well as immense farmlands of great fertility and enough hydropower to light up the continent, is now one of the poorest, and most hopeless nations on earth. Unfortunately, there are no promising solutions within grasp, or even within sight. One of the gloomiest parts about this nightmarish conflict is the use of child soldiers. The overwhelming majority of child soldiers in the Congo have been kidnapped from their families by rebel groups. It has been estimated that one in ten child soldiers or 30,000 children are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations believes that 15-30% of all newly recruited soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo army are less than 18 years old. One...
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...their fathers caused by the assignment of the military. These authors pinpoint some of the difficult obstructions these children have to face while these men are MIA (missing in action). They talk about the adjustment and the adapting to the prolonged and seemingly indefinite absence of a father, and how a relationship between a father and child changes over the long period of time until the veteran returns. Moreover, they collected data from 42 families of returned prisoners of the Vietnam War and attempted to identify a combination of factors that could explain the variability in the quality of the father-child relationship subsequent to the returning from the War. This information from this book will help convey emotional lives that these children have to endure. This book will strengthen my research by pointing out how children are affected when there is a nonattendance of one of the parents for a long period of time. Bowen, L. Gary, Dennis K. Orthner. The Organization Family: WORK AND FAMILY LINKAGES IN THE U.S... New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1989. Print. This book depicts how marital relationships get torn apart because of soldiers that come back from the war with post traumatic stress and have the need to have an aggressive and physical attitude towards their wife. The aggression these women have to face forces them to determine if they will stick by these veterans or get a divorce because these men don’t know how to control this disorder. Bowen...
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...Africa in Cinema- Final Paper Professor Rice May 2010 Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone This semester, the topic of Child Soldiers presented a very interesting dilemma that several countries in Africa continue to face today. Sierra Leone, in particular, has struck an interest because of the many films and readings that try to depict this story of the civil war. In class, we have viewed two films representing the problems with child soldiers in Sierra Leone which include films titled Blood Diamond and Ezra. Both films represent opposite sides of the spectrum, as Blood Diamond shows the Western view of child soldiers and Ezra represents the first African view of child soldiers. Before discussing the two films, there are also two articles that depict the issues of child soldiers in great detail. In the first article by A. B. Zack-Williams titled, “Child Soldiers in the Civil War in Sierra Leone,” the author describes the reasons behind children even joining rebel based armies such as the RUF, why children are chosen as soldiers against their will, and the examination of policies that are yet to be instilled on this matter. The first valid point that the author makes is the purpose of the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). The focus of this organization is to seek a better life for the people in Sierra Leone. They feel as if their lives have been wasted because of poor housing, malnutrition and no opportunity to succeed and that the government is to blame. With that said...
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...Position Paper Outline In Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and many other countries in the world there are still children being recruited to war. (according to Reliefweb) In fact, child soldiers are used for fighting. For instance, kids are forced to take part in wars, forced to kill, and commit other acts of violence. In addition,the children are used as cooks, porters, messengers, informants, spies or anything their commanders want them to do. Many people believe that child soldiers should not be given amnesty, however, I believe that these juveniles should because they are forced to take part in the military, are also not old enough to know how to make the right decisions. Also these adolescents do not have 100% control over their...
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...Tamil people in the north and east of Sri Lanka. After the Indian Peace Keeping Force attack in October 1987, the LTTE began abducting and forcing large amounts of women and children (many under 15) to fight. Children were immediately trained for massed attacks in battles, they have been the LTTE leader’s most preferred recruits as they can be easily brain washed into suicide bomber, which was their main purpose. Over 90% of the LTTE cadre had been recruited as underage. Child soldering is considered one of the most heinous war crimes committed against humanity. UNICEF statistics indicate 1,591 cases against the LTTE up to end may2007. Once recruited either by force or otherwise, the children are separated from the rest of the world and trained to do all sorts of terrorist acts including killing Sinhalese and Muslim children. 5,794 cases of child abductions have been reported against the LTTE between January 2001 and December 2006 period. All of these children have been recruited to the LTTE as child soldiers. Girls and boys were forcibly...
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...W O M E N ’ S C O M M I S S I O N for refugee women & children w U N TA P P E D P OT E N T I A L : Adolescents affected by armed conflict A review of programs and policies U N TA P P E D P OT E N T I A L : Adolescents affected by armed conflict A review of programs and policies Wo m e n ’s C o m m i s s i o n f o r R e f u g e e Wo m e n & C h i l d r e n N e w Yo r k W O M E N ’ S C O M M I S S I O N for refugee women & children Copyright © January 2000 by Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-58030-000-6 Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children 122 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10168-1289 tel. 212.551.3111 or 3088 fax. 212.551.3180 e-mail: wcrwc@intrescom.org www.intrescom.org/wcrwc.html w cover photographs © Rachel K. Jones, Marc Sommers, Sarah Samson, Holly Myers, Anne-Sophie Rosette, International Rescue Committee M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children seeks to improve the lives of refugee women and children through a vigorous program of public education and advocacy, and by acting as a technical resource. The Commission, founded in 1989 under the auspices of the International Rescue Committee, is the only organization in the United States dedicated solely to speaking out on behalf of women and children uprooted by armed conflict or persecution. Acknowledgments The Women’s Commission expresses its sincere...
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...deployments may occur in rapid succession and be extended. Therefore, military personnel and their families must always be deployment-ready. Deployments are not easy and can create significant stress for U.S. military men and women and their families. In many cases deployments cans create problems in families. It can contribute to marital problems, family dysfunction, and emotional or behavioral disturbance in spouses and children. The primary purpose of this research paper is to describe the effects of military deployments on a families and children. This paper will discuss the effects and they type of effects the military families and children are faced with. “Deployments in the United States have increased greatly in the past 10 years. Families and children are psychiatrically affected by these deployments and recent studies are clarifying these effects.” (James 2012, p.16) Deployments in military service entails the departing of men and women who leave their families and their homes with a group of other soldiers (Army, Air force, Marines, Navy) and go to another country for a period of 90 days to 15 months. During this time they earn what is called combat pay. This is given because of the danger they are placed in while in these other countries. “A soldier’s life exists on a...
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