Preview

Child Soldiering

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
521 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Child Soldiering
Chase Carrell
Ms. Held
English III

Child Soldiers in Columbia
Many Children today are forced to fight and risk their lives as soldiers. This paper will discuss Columbia’s use of child soldiers, and child combatants as a human rights issue. This problem is directly violating the laws of Columbia. These young combatants participate in every aspect of contemporary warfare (Bradbury). Some children speak of having witnessed or forced to commit atrocities, including rape and murder. Human rights groups need to force the government to end the use of child soldiers because it endangers children, it. Child soldiering should be put to a stop by the government because it is endangering children, it is depriving them of their childhood, and it is mentally damaging their future despite the objection that it could start a war. In Columbia, like dozens of other countries around the world, children have become direct participants in war. They are deprived of their childhood, and often victims of horrible acts of violence. More than 14,000 of Columbia’s children are fighting as combatants in its armed forces (Snyder). “Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make well-trained soldiers”(Bradbury). This is because children without families need money to eat and live. Child soldiering has yet to be stopped in Columbia and many other countries. Life of the Children in Columbia is much like the adults they fight with. In training, they witness prisoners being tortured and mutilated. “An estimated eighty percent of the children under arms belong to one of the two guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or the National Liberation Army (ELN)”(Bradbury). At least one of every four irregular combatants in Colombia is under eighteen years of age (Snyder). Also the guns they use are lightweight, so they are easily armed.
The issue of child combatants is completely ignored by the Columbian government. Human rights services



Cited: Remer, John. “Fighting for the Rights of Child Soldiers.” (Fall 2010): 4. EBSCO Host. Web. 12 November 2012. Rosen, David. “Assumptions About Childhood and Child Soldiers.” (13 May 2002): 3. EBSCO Host. Web. 12 November 2012.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    This article was about four former child soldiers in the Sierra Leon civil war that were interviewed by Newsweek. They each relive the horrors of their prior lives during the war and give us a walkthrough of just how savage these young boys were living at the time. The interview topics range from before the war, being forced into service, drug factors, atrocities, life after and future goals. The now teenage boys reminisce on their crusades of murder, amputations, tortures and rape in their younger days. This article is filled with individual stories of unthinkable evils these boys committed in a corrupted…

    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Child soldiers should be given amnesty unless they did it voluntarily. Children are kidnapped every year and are forced into the military. Some children join for personal gain revenge, better life, etc.. They have almost no choice in whether to fight or not, It’s usually join or die. This article explores the evidence to answer the question, should involuntary child soldiers be granted amnesty.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first the author presents why and how children are used as soldiers. The problem is that parents often can’t support their children, so they have to give them away to the army. For the military children soldiers are perfect, because they are “easily manipulated, intensely loyal, fearless, and, most important, in endless supply”. They are often seen as ideal weapons and are used by rebels and terrorists as suicide bombers, combatants ,spies, and to plant mines.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Romeo Dallaire

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “The use of boys and girls for military purposes violates their human rights. Those who exploit children often try to hide their activities.” (Who Are Child Soldiers?). In 2007, Romeo Dallaire created The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative. The goal of this organization is to find and eradicate any uses of child soldiers around the world. “The Dallaire Initiative wants to bring the perspective of the security sector to the issue of child soldiery, while equipping them with the training and tools to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers worldwide” (The Romeo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative). Since the launch of this initiative, the organization has been able to track down and stop uses of child soldiers in countries like…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ishmeal's Case Study

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An significant socio-cultural factor in this case is the history of civil war in Sierra Leone. The client mentions stories from his father's days about liberation of the country and unspoken atrocities regarding violence ensued by child soldiers in the past. This political instability leads to cultural fear, mistrust in government and confusion of safety (Betancourt et al., 2010). Additionally, the lack of communication about children and warfare to the children are all contributing factors to the clients transition to soldier of war (Shepler, 2005). All of these issues are seen in the clients experiences throughout. Thus…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Diction In A Long Way Gone

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages

    These children are robbed of their childhood in many countries. It makes me angry that many of these children don’t have the attention of others. I live my life everyday without the fear of being killed in my sleep by another soldier. While that is the reality of child soldiers. I have already started to recommend this book to anyone who can handle the gruesome details, it’s so important for…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kids Charly, Jordy, and Mireille suffer in the Central African Republic every day due to child labor and war. There is sexual abuse, the use of weapons, and gaining power as child soldiers. All of these horrible topics are discussed in the article, “In a War, Without a Childhood.” In the article, “I’m Ahmed” a man lives in Iraq attempting to play music without being harmed. Later, he left and went to the U.S. to gain freedom and walk around without the fear of being attacked.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Up to 14,000 children are believed to be involved in militias in Colombia. Under aged soldiers is also prevalent in parts of Asia such as Sri Lanka and Cambodia.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    You sit in a trench and wait for your orders to come. You look left and right to see your comrades sitting with you, but they aren’t grown men and women, they are children. Your mind is unsteady and lightheaded from the drugs you were given. When you look out of the trench you see children only eight years of age marching into a village and burning everything down to a smoldering ash. Some children do it for protection others doing it for their religion. Hundreds of lives were taken when the village burned down, and it was all at the hands of children. Child soldiers have been in existence for years. People believe that child soldiers should be punished for their crimes and put into jail, but why? Why would you put a little one in jail when they were told what they were doing was right? These minors have not been given the proper chance to live a life to the fullest of their potential.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine if you were forced to kill others for whole years of your life, seeing the people bleed out each and every time as they struggle to hold onto life.This is what child soldiers are put through almost every day. In some parts of the world, such as Sierra Leone. There is tremendous disputes over child soldiers. Everyday hundreds if not thousands of child soldiers are drugged, abused, and brainwashed to kill others in the battlefields of Sierra Leone and countries alike. Now after all this, these children are being captured by governments across the world and are being prosecuted for their crimes…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    200,000… 200,000 children worldwide are being used against their will. Being drugged with marijuana and cocaine. Some shouted at, or being taught how and why they are killing. These children are being taught at a young age “brainwashed” articles say. We can help these children but we can not let just wander off freely. And to do that we need to see what kind of conditions they’re in and how they actually feel about killing. We also need to learn what kind of state they’re in. Are they being taught this in a school or lined up with guns with a commander shouting at them what they need to learn. These objects are what we base on whether or not child soldiers should be given amnesty.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The use of child soldiers is one of the most blatant abuses of international human rights. There have been a number of treaties that have tried to prohibit these practices, but the use of child soldiers has become more prominent and occurs in approximately 75% of conflicts around the world. Primary causal factors of recruiting children are: social disruptions due to globalization, disease and war which has resulted in further global conflict and generation disconnection which has created a pool of possible recruits and technological improvements with fire arms becoming smaller and lighter allowing children to be more effective. With low draft turnout, conflict leaders see the recruitment and use of children to be a economic benefit. It is low…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    (Blue and Woodward 2). What this makes clear is how child soldier’s past would prove a problem in attempting to fit into an average community. It is expected that there would be a large amount of tension, fear and hesitation towards the former soldiers. Moreover, the article written by Jeff Koinange also declares, “It’s as if all the child soldiers went to the same kindergarten. (Where children are forced to fight)”…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “In the last ten years, two million child soldiers have been killed, more than one million orphaned, more than six million left injured or permanently disabled, and more than 10 million diagnosed with psychological trauma” (Invisible Children). But that is only the beginning of this problem and it could get worse. Many young children find themselves in the army for various reasons. They commit many acts that are deemed as crimes. Some people think that they should be pardoned and some think otherwise. Even if people think that child soldiers should not receive amnesty, the child soldiers must be given amnesty because they are not responsible for their actions, they do not always have a choice, and because they have suffered a lot of pain and need help.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thousands of children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. Boys and girls serve in government forces and armed opposition groups. They may fight as front-line combatants, suicide bombers, mine sweepers, sex slaves, and spies.Many are abducted or recruited by force, while others join voluntarily, believing that armed groups offer their best chance for survival. We are working to prevent the use of child soldiers and to hold accountable the people who send children to fight. It threatens the core of the United Nations, and the heart of our world's future: Children. The US Child Soldiers Prevention Act prohibits the US government from providing…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics