What Are The Arguments Against Child Soldiers

Currently there are 300,000 male and female child soldiers ranging between the ages of 6 and18 that are illegally recruited to fight for approximately 30 conflicts around the world. Child soldiers are targets for state-run armies, paramilitaries and rebel groups because of there vulnerability, age and size. Once recruited and trained they are known to commit acts of murder, rape, mass killings and mutilation. There is a debate whether or not children should be prosecuted for their war crimes. Child Soldiers are perceived as innocent and vulnerable but this is the problem. The motive for these armies and rebel groups to recruit these children is because of their place in society. Prosecuting child soldiers is a way of protecting the children. We also need to consider the fact that there are children who do volunteer to join the army.
Child soldiers are perceived as innocent and vulnerable but here lies the problem.
This is a motive for the state armies and rebel groups. We are basically giving these armies and rebel groups an advantage. They will use the children as an excuse to commit war crimes knowing that there will be no consequences and potentially cause more atrocities. If the court was less forgiving and set rules and guidelines for all children this world would be a safer place. For example if a child around the age of eight was involved in causing a mass killing he should be trialled as an adult because he did something wrong and therefore needs to be accountable for his actions. The punishment of children shouldn't be as harsh as an adult but still give the child a time to reflect on his actions and learn from his mistakes so when he does complete his sentence he won't be a danger to society.This will help prevent the recruitment of child soldiers because the armies and rebel groups will know that everyone involved in war crimes will face
justice.

Even though child recruitment is a crime child soldiers do commit serious crimes. They are the victims and the perpetrators. Even though they are the victims of child recruitment they also do commit crimes that effect other people who have families. The victims and families of those affected also seek justice even though the crimes have been committed by a child. If we don't prosecute the children they can be at higher risk of being mentally scarred and being forced to commit dirtier crimes because of their immunity to prosecution. If we prosecute the children the child and its community will be safe. They will be provided food, drink and medical attention . Instead of placing them in jail they could be rehabilitated so they will be treated for any psychological trauma. But this will not solve the problem completely. The recruiter is the source of this problem. If the country holds an investigation, the recruiters will be brought to justice and have a far worse punishment than the child soldier.

Even though there are child soldiers who are forced, trained and drugged there are children who volunteer to join rebel groups and state run armies. In the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) the majority of child soldier recruitment is voluntary. These children suffer from extreme poverty and lack of education. Because of there little knowledge they think this is there only way to escape poverty. There are cases when these children have had their families killed by soldier and want to seek revenge. Even though both of these cases are preventable, it is a very true reality. They go into these conflicts committing atrocities from their own discretion. Data from the UN suggests that out of 1,988 cases of recruitment 928 of them (47 percent) were considered voluntary. The reality is that the children might appear innocent but there are some of them that have evil hearts. If we don't investigate on all child soldier cases we could potentially let an evil hearted child into society to then later commit even more atrocities.