Childhood Inequalities In The Military
Social Justice SSJ – 20010 Childhood Inequality
Stephen Fitzpatrick – 12253799
12/12/2014
“Write an essay presenting a strategy which the international community should adopt in order to offer greater protection to children from the dangers associated with militarised conflict situations”.
Many children around the world today are suffering from and being exposed to violence, forced to participate in armed conflict and deprived of education within a number of unstable, war torn countries. This is one of the most shocking examples of childhood inequality which faces the world today as quite often these children are being targeted and deliberately recruited into armed groups and organisations in conflict situations either as military …show more content…
There are also similar trends and commonalties which most other war torn countries share. Firstly, the recruitment of any child under the age of 18 into military forces, whether it is due to opposition groups targeting young men and enticing them to become child soldiers or young children choosing that option, the main aim is to stop the recruitment of children full stop. ‘Louder than Words’ (2012) strategy aims to combat this problem by issuing a global ban on the military recruitment of any person below the age of 18 years and implementing enforcement measures and state sanctions if any national or non-state army fail to comply with this policy. The strategy includes a “10-point Checklist” which is aimed to assist and encourage all states by assessing risk factors and identifying legal and practical measures needed to end the use of child soldiers in military forces and armies. (Louder than Words, 2012) All armed groups should therefore, immediately demobilize these children from fighting, publicly promise that they will not use children therefore be held accountable for their actions and institute procedures to monitor the ages of children to ensure they don’t enlist
Stephen Fitzpatrick – 12253799
12/12/2014
“Write an essay presenting a strategy which the international community should adopt in order to offer greater protection to children from the dangers associated with militarised conflict situations”.
Many children around the world today are suffering from and being exposed to violence, forced to participate in armed conflict and deprived of education within a number of unstable, war torn countries. This is one of the most shocking examples of childhood inequality which faces the world today as quite often these children are being targeted and deliberately recruited into armed groups and organisations in conflict situations either as military …show more content…
There are also similar trends and commonalties which most other war torn countries share. Firstly, the recruitment of any child under the age of 18 into military forces, whether it is due to opposition groups targeting young men and enticing them to become child soldiers or young children choosing that option, the main aim is to stop the recruitment of children full stop. ‘Louder than Words’ (2012) strategy aims to combat this problem by issuing a global ban on the military recruitment of any person below the age of 18 years and implementing enforcement measures and state sanctions if any national or non-state army fail to comply with this policy. The strategy includes a “10-point Checklist” which is aimed to assist and encourage all states by assessing risk factors and identifying legal and practical measures needed to end the use of child soldiers in military forces and armies. (Louder than Words, 2012) All armed groups should therefore, immediately demobilize these children from fighting, publicly promise that they will not use children therefore be held accountable for their actions and institute procedures to monitor the ages of children to ensure they don’t enlist