Child Soldiers BY Dusty Dusty Boyd Research Paper Imagine having someone come into your home and take your eight year old son or daughter away, teach them how to use weapons, have them kill or maim their own family members, expect them to fight in a war that they know nothing about or even turn them into a sex slave. Can you imagine your child as a soldier in a war? Knowing your child is out somewhere getting shot at or even being forced into sex can be very difficult to deal with as a parent.
Crimes against humanity, like this one, should not be allowed and it seems as though in certain countries and areas little is being done o stop it or to help these children. Children around the world are forced to be soldiers, War Child UK. Com states that “There are estimated to be 250,000 child soldiers in the world and 40% of those children are girls. ” Countries in Africa such as, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda all have child soldiers.
The children in these countries are not getting the basic needs of life such as food, shelter and medical attention. They are missing out on the love, nurture and education that a child in a non-combative area would usually get. Some people think that Just because children are easier to persuade, they can recruit them as a soldier and put them in the front line of combat to make their enemies second guess themselves. They would second guess themselves because it could be their own child they are shooting at or the child reminds them of their own.
It should be illegal to use children as soldiers because of the adverse effects it has on children. War can nave many deterrent detects on a chill d, such as being uprooted trot their families, orphaned, deprived of education and childhood recreations, and exposed to lenience and sexual assaults. Many of these children have psychological problems when they grow up, for instance, they may suffer from severe separation anxiety, have nightmares, trouble sleeping, depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PETS), or may even feel hopeless about their future.
The following story describes the horror a child in Africa went through and can be found in The Impact of Armed Conflict of Child Development: An African girl at the age of 10 was made to witness her mother’s rape and murder, and was herself forced to serve for two years as a concubine for rebel soldiers. After finally managing to escape, she went for treatment at the provincial hospital. A nurse realized there was something particularly wrong with the girl.
In addition to having contracted a sexually transmitted infection, she was very withdrawn and sad. Encouraged by the nurse’s soft and caring treatment, the girl told her story. She repeated it later to a social worker and was moved to a foster home, where she developed a close relationship with her foster mother. At the girl’s wish, a traditional cleansing ceremony was held to rid her of all the bad things that had befallen her. War has changed this girl’s life before it ever really began.
Her attitude and beliefs most likely changed dramatically and she probably does not trust anyone with the exception of her foster mother. This is one of many similar stories of children who are forced into living this type of life. Although this story has a happy ending, not all stories end like this. Many of the children are never able to escape the life and may end of fighting in a war the rest of their lives or die fighting in the war. As Americans, this life would be unimaginable and not the life we would choose.
Most of Americans have been taught that violence s not the answer. As for certain African countries, violence is the first thought that comes to mind when trying to resolve an issue. Many of the children who were child soldiers also had postgraduates stress symptoms and very strong feelings of revenge. Marlene Book’s article Studies Draw Attention to Ways That War Affects Children’s Mental Health for Netscape Medical News shows that: The children had experienced a mean of 11. 1 potentially traumatic events; most commonly they had witnessed a shooting (92. %) or witnessed someone being wounded (89. 9%). A total of 59 (34. 9%) of these former hill soldiers had a PETS symptom score higher than 35, indicating clinically important PETS symptoms. The children with more PETS symptoms had significantly less openness to reconciliation and more feelings of revenge. These feelings “could impose barriers to sustainable and long-term peace building,” the group writes, adding that their study supports the need to promote psychological recovery for war- affected children.
Can you imagine how different an American child’s life would be if he/she saw people being snot or wounded all the time? Never witness such events and probably never will. Many American adults The United Nations states in the Convention on the Rights of the Child that “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”.
To date, more than 110 countries have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. The Optional Protocol states the minimum age to be on the front line is 15. It also states that countries which ratify the Protocol take certain measures to guarantee that members under the age of 18 do not take part in hostilities. Because of this, children in countries such as America and other countries that have ratified the protocol will never have to endure the hardships of war until they are legally adults.
Since many African countries have not ratified that protocol, there is nothing that legally stops these chi Eider trot testing on the trot line. Individuals in war can be injured severely or even killed while on the line of duty which can cause PETS. Children being taken from their families during the night can traumatized the child for the rest of their lives. Combining these scenarios can forever alter the way the children view life.
These children need to have a chance to live as children and should not see the impact of war which is why more countries need to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. This issue has recently been brought to the attention of many American because of a video that went viral call Kong 2012. In this video that circled around inline, Joseph Kong is taking children from their homes and uses them as soldiers.
Kong then forces the children to kill their parent’s so if a child escapes from him the child has no where to go which leaves the child no choice but to stay with him or escape and be on his/her own. In conclusion, having children as soldiers can be a terrible thought in most minds. Children should not have to suffer through horrible events in life such as depression, separation anxiety, PETS, or a number of other psychological issues that can be caused by being separated from their family in a traumatic way and then Ewing forced into war or sex slavery.
Although these things happen everyday, people do nothing to stop these terrible people. The reason the people in these war-ridden countries do nothing to stop children from going to war is because they were raised to believe that this is normal and even if they do not believe in children fighting the war, the adults are probably scared for their own life. Many countries need to follow the optional protocol that helps protect children which many countries abide by. This would make it illegal for children to fight in the war and would help the well being of the country.
