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Explain Why Children Should Not Be Prosecuted Essay

1252 Words6 Pages

What if you were kidnapped as a child, forced into doing crimes that you didn’t know you were committing, then you got arrested for them? That will be the life of a child soldier if they are prosecuted for their actions. Children are combatants in nearly three-quarters of the world's conflicts and have posed difficult dilemmas for the professional governments they confront, including the United States, such as whether or not choosing to prosecute them or not. Children should not be prosecuted for their actions because they were forced to join and commit their crimes, and because children do not know the difference between right and wrong.
One reason child soldiers should not be prosecuted is because they were forced into violence and had no choice, it was a life or death situation. Child soldiers were given no choice about whether to fight or not. These children were abducted and if …show more content…

Some people believe that if children were prosecuted, this could give their commanders a bigger incentive to delegate them to the dirtiest of orders, aiming at impunity. I disagree with this and do not believe that prosecuting a child could give commanders an incentive to order children to dirtier crimes. These children are already doing some of the dirtiest crimes you could think of. One example of this is from the book A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah.. “The boys and the other soldiers who were the audience clapped as if I had just fulfilled one of life’s greatest achievements.” (pg. 125, Ishmael Beah). Ishmael has just won a grisly contest arranged by the army corporal. Each soldier is to kill a prisoner by slicing his throat, and the soldier whose prisoner dies quickest wins the contest. Ishmael wins and is given the rank of Junior Lieutenant as a reward. This proves that children are already imposed the dirtiest of crimes. Commanders cannot drive these children farther than they already

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This young boy was manipulated by the two rebels to either serve or death would come upon them. These child soldiers served while encountering major effects on fellow soldiers as well as Ishmael had. In A Long Way Gone Ishmael encountered PTSD, and other tragic events. History has proven that the

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The definition of a child solider is any child under the age of 18 recruited by a state or non-state armed group and used as fighters, cooks, suicide bombers, and human shields among other things. However regardless of what role the child plays, it is a clear violation of the fourth and twenty-sixth articles. The fourth states that there shall be no slavery of any person while the twenty-sixth protects the right of people (specifically children in this case) to get an education. The former applies to child soldiers as most of them are press ganged into joining and are then treated horribly. In the book When Elephants Fight by Eric Walters and Adrian Bradbury goes into detail about the reality of child soldiers in western Africa.

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In the end, when the conflict has cooled, the question rises, who was to blame for all the death? Most obviously were the leaders of each army and/or the source of the disturbance of peace, but can you blame an ex-child-soldier for their atrocities? People can’t simply accuse a former child soldier for crimes that they suffered a “childhood” where there was no other choice. There are probably many variables that went into making a child into a killer as proven in the article, a former child soldier will stand trial in The Hague for war crimes, “Clearly, the traumatized psychology of the child soldier will be part of Ongwen's defense when his trial begins at the ICC” (3), as this quote demonstrates how very little children probably ever joined the army willfully without trauma or fear for one’s self or someone close to them. The only time that a child soldier can be justifiably accused of war crimes is if they killed without trauma or fear and/or a continuous record of violence even after the

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744 Words | 3 Pages

Child soldiers have been a major issue in countries all over the world for a very long time. For example, Afghanistan is recruiting children to become a part of the Taliban, one of the largest terrorist groups in the country. A theme presented by Ishmael Beah in the book A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier is that when all is lost, there is always hope. He went through brutal drugs and a dark childhood while he was in a civil war but he still was able to push through it and find happiness.

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Even though this may be true, it still suggests that the acts these children are committing are not their doing but instead the orders of their officers. The extraordinary circumstances that Wessells talks about forces the kids to fight for their lives. Young children are taught to act as killing machines, destroying anything in their path. That’s a far world away from playing soccer with friends or holding a lemonade stand. Therefore, while these kids are off fighting to stay alive, people in charge still seem to be to be taking the easy way out and using jail time as the first answer instead of

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1603 Words | 7 Pages

You’re given more drugs after.” This account from Ishmael Beah shows us a direct source of what really happens. It also shows us how kids are easily influenced to do whatever the commander wants and if not they would be killed. In one way, this shows how the children were only trying to save themselves. He also explained how people were killed in front of him to

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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.

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In the article Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted For Their Crimes it says,“if a child is under the age of 15 is considered too young to fight then he or she must be considered too young to be held criminally responsible for serious violations.” This explains how that they are easily manipulated and targeted because they aren't legally responsible to take responsibility for their actions. Each child were held in hostilities and couldn't have to opportunity to not fight. Also in Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted For Their Crimes a report within the article it says, “ The report says child soldiers should not be prosecuted simply for the association with an armed group of having participation in hostilities.” Children are targeted to be recruited to war because nobody can take responsibility for the

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713 Words | 3 Pages

The first reason i think that child soldiers should not be prosecuted is because while kids are young they don 't have much control over what they get to do, lots of kids have to do what their parent or guardian says, and i am sure that when kids get recruited they have no choice but to go. In an article i read said that when a child soldier is recruited that they have no choice but to join. This matches with the story because it explains that kids don’t have a choice but to join when they get recruited. Kids also don’t get to choose what

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Human Rights Watch, The Daily Beast, 20 Mar. 2017, www.hrw.org/news/2010/10/27/child-soldier-trial-guantanamo. “Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted for Their Crimes?” IRIN, 9 Mar. 2016,

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America the land of the free and home of the brave. This country is known for allowing the people to make their own choices, but turns out there is a limit to the choices we make or so many have thought until right now. America is all about choices and how these choices influence not only one person, but a whole society. Also how that society impacts and can even force one person to make a decision that is not the society 's or the governments to make. There has been a big argument over unplanned pregnancies.

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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.

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1821 Words | 8 Pages

Have you ever imagined growing up on a life of drugs, war, crime, and seeing things that many adults won’t dare to ever see? In many countries around the world, this is what many children have to deal with. There is an occurring issue of people across Africa and parts of Asia using children as soldiers in war. They act and take upon the roles of real combatants, causing the people of the public to act in different ways. It’s been well documented that these children have used guns and war tactics, and committed various illegal and illicit acts of violence.

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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.

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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.)

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