Should Child Soldiers Be Granted Amnesty

In the world today, there is more than 25 countries who still actively use children in warfare. Child soldiers are human beings under the age of 18 who participate in military actions. They are evidently cheaper to maintain and to train than adult soldiers. They are also more loyal and obedient because the young respect their elders. It has been noted that estimately, 300 thousand children were recruited to fight and perform in war (Child Soldiers.)

To start off, there was never any justice done for the kids who were child soldiers because people weren’t paid for certain jobs they did because of their age. This idea was supported in the article “Armed & Underaged” by

Child Soldiers should not be prosecuted, but should be rehabilitated. These are all the reasons why these children should not be prosecuted. Why I think these children needs to go to rehab is because that they are too young and they are not even mature enough. People who prosecute Child Soldiers Might be insane furthermore, children are not even an adult they might be influenced by drugs and think it is good. unless you are an adult, then you may need to be prosecuted, other than that children are too young to go to rehab and needs to understand life.

“Tens of thousands of children are estimated to be recruited and used by armed groups. In 2019 alone, more than 7,740 children, some as young as six, were recruited and used as soldiers around the world, according to the United Nations. Most are recruited by non-state groups.” (Wuilbercq). There are more than seven thousand forty children that were child soldiers in twenty nineteen alone.

Many children live in an environment that is constantly under threat of conflict. Child soldiers are an ongoing problem because children should not be forced to kill and have their innocence stripped from them. This issue requires citizens to take action because children should not be forced to fight in a war that they did not

This quote shows the mental and physical abuse of the kids because they went from being innocent and never having drugs to having drugs daily with their food to make them have a killing and fierce mentality. This is bad because no kids should ever have drugs at that young of an age and they didn’t even know they were doing the drugs. Mental and physical abuse is forced upon young kids by making them do drugs and they don’t know any better is why child soldiers should be internationally

In high school, I read A Long Way Gone from that reading it made me start appreciating my life even more. During my reading, I came to discover that the child soldiers did not have a typical childhood like the children nowadays. As a child soldier, their lives were taken from them at a very young age like between the years of six to eighteen years old. Imagine being that young being forced to give up your family and childhood to become a child soldier to kill and to commit other acts of violence. Because of the child soldiering the children saw different things that children should not be able to see like, piles of dead bodies, and large amount of blood.

As long as former child soldiers show that they will not recommit their acts of violence, they should be granted amnesty. Child soldiers are often forced into being violent. They shouldn’t be held responsible for things that they were essentially forced to do. Although there is plenty of evidence showing that child soldiers should be given amnesty, some may argue the opposite. People may say that they could sacrifice their own lives instead of killing others, but that is too much to expect of kids.

Many young children under aged have been taken in by the government. They are being held captive tell they are drugged enough and brainwashed to go out and kill or to be killed. They are forced to train to kill under the influence of drugs and they are hardly aware of what they or doing. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because of the absents of their minds and them not being able to process what they are doing. These children are often seen as targets because they are under aged and not able to take responsibility for their actions so they are targeted to be able to kill without punishment.

Thousands and thousands, of children in the Middle East and Africa, are being used as soldiers where it is needed. These children kill others and do things that no other child should have to do. People wonder if child soldiers should be given amnesty or not. The issue of child soldiers came to worldwide attention when Ishmael Beah published his book A Long Way Gone, which was based on what happened while he was a child soldier. A child soldier is someone under the age of eighteen and who is used in wars.

"They don't even have to be paid. " The international justice system is catching up with those who use children as soldiers.” Children are being manipulated by their own country, to do things they get no benefit from. This helps show this helps show that they should be respected because they are not given the freedom to have their own opinions and decide if they want to do something without being pushed around and being manipulated into doing something. People are telling them what they should be doing and that they need to be in

When these children use their weapons, others are killed, and these children can get prosecuted. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are not fully responsible for their actions, they join without fully knowing what they are doing and for reasons other than wanting to fight, and they should be rehabilitated instead of being prosecuted. Child soldiers should be given amnesty because they are not fully responsible for their actions. Often, child soldiers are doing what they do because of drugs or because they are being forced to. Most times child soldiers are not doing what they want.

When I think of a soldier, I think of a strong young man fighting for his country. When I think of a child, I get the image of a young child playing outside with no worries in the world and no responsibilities. However, this is not true, as there are millions of children who have become child soldiers and have been displaced in the world. What makes children want to become child soldiers? Children become soldiers for their governments, as they recruit them.

Assignment page Video Where many children all over the world merrily and freely live under the protection of the law, for others, this is a distant reality, they live in a world where they’re battling poverty, stripped of their childhood and basic human rights are expunged, they’re the innocent victims of conflict, and war is made to seem their one and only duty, not to mention that these are children no more than 10 years of age. They are put into a situation where it’s to kill or be killed. The United Nations defines a child soldier as, “Any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity.” Since the past 15 years, child soldiers are being used in almost every region of the world. Unlike most children, who go to school, they’re abducted from their families and forced into becoming a child soldier, where living conditions are beyond imaginable.

However, what they’ve done doesn 't come with the fact that child soldiers live with rugged conditions, drugs, the influence of others. Even though some people believe that child soldier’s shouldn’t be given amnesty, overall, it becomes clear that these children should be given amnesty because many adults influence their actions, they live in inferior conditions, and children who enlist as child soldiers enlist for multiple reasons other than violence. First, in many areas, it can be clearly seen that child soldiers are influenced by their superiors. No one is ever born dangerous, it’s always their parents and environment that shape a child into who they are.