Child Soldiers: Criminals or Not? In Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel’s article "Children of War", the author addresses the uses of child soldiers as war tools and the long term horrific outcomes that result from it. Akbulut-Yuksel discusses how the effects of using child soldiers during World War II not only had a negative regional affect but negatively affected some aspects of the entire world in regards to "human capital formation, health, and the labor market" (Akbulut-Yuksel). Recently, with the increase in the use of child soldiers as war methods in poor, underdeveloped third world countries, the question of what criminal liability should be held against these children is more prominent. Many people strongly believe that children involved in war …show more content…
Children are easy to influence and are susceptible to numerous proposals and notions at their age. As Jézéquel and Singh stated, "With child soldiers, their lack of awareness and reduced insight into the consequences of their behavior make them less responsible and more fearless than adults" (qtd. in Brits and Nel 467). Children who are recruited and forced into fighting at a young age usually are under control of adults or their superiors. They, at that time have very little to no free will, and are often times threatened or drugged in order to comply too heinous acts they would not usually …show more content…
These children are often time themselves kidnapped from their own homes or off the streets and have nowhere to go but to a recruiting army. Megan Nobert writes in her doctoral dissertation, “Children at War: The criminal responsibility of child soldiers” Although a large number of countries have signed and ratified the UNCRC, very few have actually implemented the document. This failure could be attributed to a lack of resources available to poorer countries of the world, which prevents them from implementing a number of the measures necessary to protect children from poverty, labor, and a life lived on the streets. (Nobert 4) These children that are all alone in search for acceptance and care feel as if the only place they can get it from is recruitment groups. The excerpt below taken from Megan Nobert 's academic journal "Children At War: The Criminal Responsibility Of Child Soldiers provides a first person perspective of the life of a child soldier, one can see that the children are enticed by the realization that they will have a "family" as well as superiors and leaders that will look out for