Worldwide Child Soldiers

"Over the past ten to fifteen years", the topics child slavery and child soldiers have caught the attention of the outside world. Child soldiers have come about by abductions. In the event of abductions, once they are taken captive, they become child soldiers because the leaders convince the children, coerce them into being a killer, promise them "glory and excitement". Another reason is that these children have been exposed to poverty stricken areas and unsafe conditions at home. Child abductions and forceful tactics of entering children into the war time situations happen most in Africa. Over half of child soldiers are in Africa. Children as young as eight and ten, once abducted are forced to become child soldiers.
Pictures of kids holding guns and killing others are sprawled all over the television for billions to see. But what isn't usually portrayed that should be are the young girls that are also abducted and forced to enter into the armies. These girls are then force to service the men in the army and even become their wives. They are also physically and sexually abused. These facts show that not only boys are exposed to the cruelty.
A couple of countries that have struck me are Mozambique and Angola. The leaders in these countries pray on young children and not adults because they know that children are vulnerable. They know that adults would never abide to their rules. Children can't fight back, physically or mentally. These leaders will use threats of violence, drugs, coercion, and any other tactics they need to use in order to get these children to do what they want.
There are provisions that have been taken to try to stop these types of things from happening. Once of the efforts happened in 1990 when the United Kingdom passed the "Convention on the Rights of the Child". This was created to help the children that were abducted and forced into the world of being a child soldier.
How will these children be able to cope once they escape from these armies or are rescued? Who do they turn to? How will they be able to settle back into regular civilization? Should these children once out of the armies go to better places other than where they originated from or should they go to places that will have better situations for them? There should be more programs out there trying to help these children cope and be ready for the REAL world . There could also be camps set up for these victims, something like more rehabilitation centers. There should be places set aside only for these children. The horrible things they have experienced, only they could understand from each other. Outsiders will only judge them. There could also be older escapees who have grown and forgiven and learned that they were not monsters and help these children to regain a purpose in life and they can feel like they amount to something.

Child Soldiers

Many nations around the world are using children in warfare. Some of these children become child soldiers voluntarily and some are abducted. Most child soldiers, who join of their own free will; join because they are trying to escape poverty, starvation, and physical or sexual abuse. They also join because they are separated from their families, lack of education, and they don’t have any where to go. Others join voluntarily because they relate to the groups ideology. Once these children become child soldiers, some are coerced into killing members of their own families, other child soldiers, and civilians. Others serve as porters, cooks, guards, messengers, spies, and sex slaves. In order to make the child soldiers follow orders and not resist, they are given drugs. They are given "amphetamines, crack cocaine, palm wine, brown-brown (cocaine mixed with gun powder), marijuana and tranquilizers." These drugs affect the child soldier's sense of reality.
The problem of child soldiers is most critical in Africa, where children as young as nine have been involved in armed conflicts. These armies use child soldiers because they are cheap, and easy to manipulate. "Their underdeveloped ability to assess danger means they are often willing to take risks and difficult assignments that adults or older teenagers will refuse." These children are forced to commit unthinkable crimes, and once they are rescued or escape, "face an enormous challenge in trying to return to normal civilian life."
Whether these children are abducted or become soldiers of their on free will, should we view them as victims even though they have committed so many horrible crimes? Should they receive mercy? Should the reasons behind them joining grant them mercy or make them a victim? These children should be viewed as victims and given mercy. "Child-soldier expert Michael Wessells told Vision that no choice is a “free choice” because it is typically grounded in dire circumstances, including poverty, starvation, separation from their families, physical or sexual abuse, or lack of livelihood or education." These children join because they have no other choice. In A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier an autobiography by Ishmael Beah, he tells us how he was "separated from his family when their village was attacked by rebel forces, for a while he avoided abduction into the armed conflict that enveloped his country. Eventually, however, hunger and insecurity led him to join the government forces, who compelled him not only to fight against the rebel opposition but to perpetrate acts of extreme violence against innocent civilians along the way."
These children should not be at fault for what they have done because it was out of their control. Organizations such as, Amnesty International, The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and UNICEF, draw attention to this problem and help children who become child soldiers. No child should have to become a child soldier, or be kidnapped from their families and forced to become one. These children should have a normal childhood but instead it is tainted with blood, and the horrible crimes that they must live with for the rest of their lives.