Child Soldiers Case Study

Dear Secretary General António Guterres:

You may know that at this current moment, a child, no older than 14, is walking through the streets of a town ravished by the shooting and cries of young, innocent, and affected. They walk through with the euphoria of cocaine and the numbness of shock, an AK-47 in their hands. The child sees families dead, crying, and limping through the streets, reminding them of what they made them do. Vengeance, anger, sadness, grief, sorrow. The thoughts of the drug corrupted mind quickly turn to the thoughts of pleading bystanders as they raise their gun and pull the trigger. Their commander watches over with a pleased smile. Later they are tried for a murder they were forced to do. Amnesty was never an option.

Many child soldiers volunteer for this line of work. So if they made their own decisions why should we treat them like they didn’t? The reason being that child soldiers are under the influence of drugs which leaves their undeveloped brains in a unresponsive trance. This trance leave them easy to brainwash which makes them want to stay. While it may also be true that these children kill everyday, it is not true that they can just kill their commander or run away. Ishmael Beah, former child soldier, has stated that your commander starts to become a father figure. Pointing a gun on a newfound father figure is not only difficult for adults, it is strenuous for these children. Also, as stated before, these kids may not run away for fear of getting caught. In many child soldier organizations, when these children run away, they are most likely killed, drugged, beat, or tortured when caught . In Sudan, it is still legal for these children to be killed if they leave their post resulting in them being, what may look like, a loyal guard dog

Many children do not know what they just did at that time from the numerous accounts of brainwashing and threats. A child 's brain has not fully developed which makes them emotionally and mentally immature. This vulnerability make them an easy target and easier to influence. Children also have less knowledge of war. Since these children are young, they don’t have a sense of danger and are more willing to be sent out on dangerous missions. Children also don’t need as much food and are expendable and easily replaceable because of their rapid population growth than adults. Also, many children are under the age of ten when they are forced to serve which means that many of their brains are just beginning to grow. These children are used as shields, cooks, suicide bombers, fighters, spies, messengers and/or for sexual purposes (“Ten Facts about Child Soldiers,” 2014) . Many of these kids do not know how to cook, fight, or where they are going to deliver their message. Some children go into this operation for money or food. These children are promised but never get their food or