Should Child Soldiers Be Banned International Essay

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Should Child Soldiers Be Banned Internationally? “What I have learned from my experiences is that revenge is not good. I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I’ve come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end…” (Beah 199). Ishmael talks about his experiences of being a child soldier, and why he wanted to become one. Now, he compares himself from when he was a soldier to how he is doing in rehabilitation. In the book A Long Way Gone, the story follows Ishmael and his experience being a child soldier. For example, child soldiers experience things that mature them at a young …show more content…

The article “Child and Adolescent Mental Health Problems in Nepal” talks about how post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, affects people. The article says that “Children from poorer backgrounds are likely to have a greater exposure to child labor, exploitation and human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Moreover, the changing family structure due to divorce, separation from joint family to nuclear family, parental neglect and parental substance abuse also put children at a higher risk of psychosocial and mental health problems” (Chaulagain). Normally, one wouldn’t want to hang around with one that has PTSD. Children who did not have a good childhood when they were growing up are more likely to struggle growing up. They can experience child labor, human trafficking, and sexual abuse at a young age. Child soldiers can have a hard time trusting people because of their experiences in the war. Because children have shown signs of PTSD, child soldiers should be banned …show more content…

The author of the article “Social Competence” explains why and some signs of social skills in children and adolescents alike. They talk about “When children experience serious difficulties in the domain of peer relations, the development of social competencies may be threatened. Rejection or victimization by peers may become a source of significant stress to children, contributing to feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem….Exclusion from a normal peer group can deprive rejected children of opportunities to develop adaptive social behaviors. Hence, the social competence deficits of rejected children may increase over time, along with feelings of social anxiety and inadequacy” (“Social Competence”). Normally, when one has poor social skills, they lack the ability to befriend others. For child soldiers, they would have poor social skills because they would not know how to react around others that were not personally involved in the war. Since these child soldiers fought alongside adolescent soldiers in the war, they might have a different way of speaking or doing things with others their age in the real world. Poor social skills would mean being an outcast, being left out, playing alone, etc. Finally, children need social skills to develop, and exposing them to the world in a poor way can affect their social