Preview

Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1731 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • 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

    If we allow these soldiers to walk free, no one is safe. The child is forced back into the drug induced military where they killed, raped and murdered, innocent people. If we allowed to them to go back, the number of crimes would only grow. “If child soldiers are not prosecuted this could be an incentive for their commanders to delegate them to commit war crimes as they would know there are no consequences.” (pg. 18…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 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

    Child soldiers are being forced and drugged in order to do what others want. Child soldiers have been abused,tortured,drugged,brainwashed and taught how to handle a gun and even kill. Child soldiers have had their homes destroyed their crops taken and their lives taken away. Their families slaughtered and money and jobs taken away.…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Child soldiers are victims, not perpetrators, so they should be granted amnesty. Though to some it may look like these kids are choosing this life, in reality, most aren’t. They either have to join those forces or die, which is terrifying for any child to imagine. Not only that, but they were drugged to kill, making them forget how bad it was that they were doing. And to some of them, that army was the only family that they have, providing better living conditions than those out on the streets. Which is why these children are victims of this terrible event and should be legally forgiven for what they were forced to do.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Child soldiers shouldn't be prosecuted as adults for their actions. Instead they should be rehabilitated. Instead they could be rehabilitated. With rehabilitation it could help them heal from the damage caused for such trauma. Others argue that they still have done the crimes and it wouldn't be right, especially for victims, to let them free. The children shouldn't be blamed for what they are forced to do, the people authority should have punishment for having child soldiers. Giving child soldiers adult consequences for their actions would be insensitive and more damaging. Their brain isn't fully developed, making them easily manipulatable. Child soldiers shouldn't be persecuted instead of rehabilitated.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article “The Charge: Genocide” by Lydia Polgreen and “Armed & Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman, a claim that could be made is No real justice is being done for the people. So, Even though people responsible are undergoing investigation, children are still being forced to fight for their government and people are still being threatened by genocide. Including , According to “Armed & Underage” by Jeffrey Gettleman it states, “While the number of conflicts involving child soldiers has dropped since 2004 from 27 to 15, human-rights experts estimate that more than 200,000 children worldwide are still being used as combatants, usually against their will. And it isn't just boys: Girls are often pressed into duty as cooks or messengers. Many are…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To illustrate, an article called “Kony’s Killers”, written by Samuel Okiror, says “[Child Soldiers] killed, maimed, mutilate, attack camps, abducted children, rape, slavery, torture and pillaging” (Okiror Para 2). This piece of evidence stated helps prove the claim, as it shows all of the merciless things that child soldiers have done. Criminals in America have gone to jail for a quarter of the reasons stated, yet there are still arguments whether child soldiers should be pardoned for all the crimes they committed. Additionally, another piece of evidence that supports the claim from an article written by Gregory Warner states, “… He forced many children to kill people” (Warner 3). This suggests how not only did the young soldiers inflict crimes, but forced other children to do it themselves.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Child Soldiers

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The child soldiers believe what they are doing is right,they are fighting for their country, protecting people, they even have a family. Even if they know what they are doing is wrong,they will be shot or killed if they try to leave.“We were given the option, fight or leave. Except they would shoot you if you try to leave.” A child…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    throughout the world. It is estimated that there are as many if not more than 300,000 child soldiers around the world. Since 2001 and as of 2008, child soldiers have participated in 21 on-going or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world. Ranging from ages of 8 to 15, child soldiers are raped, abused, and sometimes even sent on suicide missions if they haven't died from the hardship put on a child in the military. 40% of child soldiers are recruited by force and many times forced to kill their family so that they don't have anything to come back to if they escape from the military. Although many countries still practice the recruiting of children, I believe stopping this practice will cause benefits to society, child soldiers lives, and quality of the protection of the country that stops this practice.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not many people echo the idea that child soldiers should be prosecuted for their horrific crimes, but these people are wrong. An example could be Omar Khadr, it states in the article, The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo (2015)”... Khadr threw a grenade that killed Speer and wounded others”(pg1) This is one example of horrible crimes because not only did he kill one person but he wounded others. This situation then escalated into a full on fire fight. Another example of this is from the story written by Ishmael Beah, A long Way Gone, it states,” ‘We burned about three…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Justice systems are struggling to determine whether child soldiers should be treated as victims or predators. Some say if a child soldier is considered too young to fight then, he or she should be too young to be held criminally responsible for serious violations. Child soldiers lack the mental maturity to fully understand the implications of their actions.…

    • 572 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

    They have to change their mind and body, to go to reality of the real world, instead of life in war. In the article Should child soldiers be prosecuted for their crimes?, the report stated how children need to be held accountable for the crimes they commit by more sufficient and appropriate methods, other than incarceration, empowering them to acknowledge their past and the crimes the execute. (should, 14). Rather than putting children in jail for murder, they should be rehabilitated so they can recognize what they did in the past was wrong. Because just putting them in prison for something they wouldn’t recognize was wrong wouldn’t be helping anyone; it would just be putting a short term solution on a long term problem. In the article Child Soldiers, the author gives “Demobilization and Reconciliation program, often abbreviated TTR and DDR, are far better ways of helping children recover and reintegrate back into society and out of war. The problem with prosecution is that it poses far too many problems” (Child, 18). A child from war needs to be pointed in the right direction instead of them having to dwell on what they did. The adolescent can turn their life around and focus on good things, other than situations of…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 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