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Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes?

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Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes?
There are approximately 300,000 child soldiers actively fighting in wars and conflicts of all kinds. Imagine spending your entire youth stuck in an army of some kind, risking your life everyday. This is what child soldiers have to go through. The use of child soldiers increased dramatically over the past years and it is clearly a huge issue. These child soldiers go through a lot, and the few that survive go through even more afterwards. The question is, should they be prosecuted for their crimes? Should these children be given amnesty? For many reasons, the answer is obviously yes. For example, most child soldiers are forced into the fight, children can not properly make decisions, and they are forced into committing war crimes that they could …show more content…
Child soldiers are killed if they do not do what is asked, and are brainwashed into doing things. For example, if a child soldiers defies orders or does not do what they are told, they would often be killed on the spot according to invisible children. This shows that child soldiers should not be prosecuted for their war crimes because they should not be responsible for doing what they are told to save their own life. In that situation, the choice is clear. They are just doing what they are told to prevent from being shot or stabbed resulting in death. Also, another way they are forced into committing these crimes is with the use of brainwashing. As said before, child soldiers are often fed drugs and alcohol to brainwash them into thinking what their commanders want them to think. This clouds their judgment and forces them to do what they are told because in that state of mind, they do not do what they want to do and do not make their own decisions. They are forced to believe that what they are told to do is right. It is the same thing as drunk driving. One might know it is not a good idea, but, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they believe it is the right thing to do. If they are forced into committing crimes, even though they might not want to, why should they be put behind bars for the misdeeds of their commanders? In conclusion, child soldiers often have nothing to do with their actions and are forced into doing what they are told. Either because they are killed if they do act as wanted, or if they are brainwashed into believing that they want to do these things. For these reasons, child soldiers should be given

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