Why Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes?

Improved Essays
In the war many children are enlisted to fight. They are instructed to injure innocent people such as strangers and possibly even family members. What shocks people the most about this is that children, who are all under the age of 18, are completing these harsh acts. Enlisting into the war as a child soldier could end with prosecution or no punishment. Children are forced by commanders through false promises, drugs, and things that are difficult to picture. The reasoning behind this is to kill innocent civilians, possibly even the soldiers family, and other people participating in the war. Child soldiers should not be given amnesty and should receive persecution following their actions and time as a soldier that is also a minor because they …show more content…
One supporting reason is that even though they are children, they still committed the crime. First, according to an article titled “Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted for their Crimes?”, “It is important that child soldiers are included in post-war justice, so that the whole community can see that the perpetrators of human rights violations are punished.” The minor soldiers need to come to terms with the past crimes they committed. Child soldiers will grow up knowing they got away with these crimes and they will brag about killing and planting landmines. They need to recognize what they did and not have special privileges since they are minors. The children will forever be responsible for these brutal crimes that they committed. Next, according to “Child soldiers should be prosecuted”, “If a child can be convicted for murder under national law they should also be held responsible for international crimes. There should be no exception simply because the crimes occurred in wartime.” They are considered a child criminal so they should be punished. They are no different from child criminals that were not at war, so they should be punished the same way as the other kids not in a war that committed these crimes. Therefore, child soldiers should be prosecuted for their actions during the war because they should be treated the same as regular child

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Despite the fact that people believe that child soldiers should be punished for there war crimes it is evident that they are innocent. First child soldiers and are left with no options and are desperate for their basic necessities so they are forced to join the military. Then child soldiers are drugged and brainwashed to fight. Finally, child soldiers are framed and accused of war crimes that they were only told to do by there commanders. With all of this being said it leaves behind one question.…

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is also a geostrategic and development issue. Child soldiers are usually depicted as victims. That’s accurate: Exploited, torn from their families, deprived of their education, and forced into battle, child soldiers are truly casualties of war.” (gates)They are then taken as a broken down child and ordered to do kill and them not knowing what they are doing, they…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Child Soldiers can be rehabilitated to live in society, but it is hard work for the victim and for the nurses and others helping. The real question is, should they be prosecuted as criminals or victims? Ishmael Beah was a child soldier in Sierra Leone during the 1990’s to fight in there civil war. After being rescued he was rehabilitated and is now a husband, author, and lives in New York. He says that he still gets nightmares about what he did.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Long Way Gone Analysis

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ishmael lives a peaceful life, he wakes up and enjoys the time he gets and love every part of the sun he sees. He didn’t get to have this privilege when he was 16 years old. He had to face all the devastating events that left him despondent. Ishmael was useless, he was forced to join one of the child soldier armies to fight for his side. Ishmael joined the army with his innocence as a kid, but as he proceeded through days and days of being a child soldier, he became more violent with killing people in his sight and leaving people with wounds.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Images last week from an ISIS video appearing to show a child executing a hostage were horrific. The very idea of the "cubs of the caliphate," as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria dubs them, is stomach-churning.”) This statement and photos show that the children in the video are no more than 14 years old thus they would not have had enough experience in the world to make the right decision. (captaindarwin ) While some did this do to lack of experience while others did this because they were brainwashed by drugs and then threatened to kill or be killed.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, the child soldiers are still being blamed for the crimes. Child soldiers should be given amnesty after possibly being kidnapped and forced into…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Child Soldiers

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As shown in the article the children are not only used for being in combat. In some people's point of view they believe child soldiers don't deserve amnesty. In the article child soldiers in the future it shows some reason why child soldiers don't deserve amnesty. The article states “many former combatants and child soldiers are still perpetrating their bad habits, including sexual crimes and abuses, once they return to civilian life” (Mukwege para. 5).…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This child is given no amnesty for his crimes and is sent away. These children, who are barely old enough to know right against wrong, should be given amnesty for their crimes. Now, you may be asking, what is a child soldier? Well, a child soldier is a kid from around nine to 16 years of age forced to go into the army. These children are put into grotesque living conditions and are forced to work for the military.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe that child soldiers are victims forced to be perpetrators. I say this because they are taken into war against their will, but then they commit many horrendous acts of killing and slaughter, which fills the perpetrator definition of someone who commits a crime. Some child soldiers are taken by government off of camps and forced into war, and if they try to leave they are shot down. In this situation, the soldiers are forced into combat and should be granted amnesty, but I believe that overall, child soldiers should only be granted amnesty if the prosecutors are certain the decision to go to war for these young soldiers was not their own. On one hand, child soldiers are victims and deserve amnesty.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    They are blamed for the crimes they committed to others, but it should be taken into account how they were also the victims of these shameful events. They were succumbed to do these things with the thought that they were doing the right thing. The article states, ““Child soldiers should not be prosecuted on account of what they have done but should rather be rehabilitated and given a second chance to re enter society as a human beings”(IRIN). This is significant because it shows tells the idea of how child soldiers were not treated as human beings but rather as objects that the army uses at their own expense without a care in the world. Perhaps if we were to take a look into their world we would understand the frustrations of being a child soldier and not being able to help yourself or others.…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    And the majority of child soldiers are 10 years old or younger. Girls make up an estimated 40% of child soldiers, and are especially at risk of sexual abuse. Unfortunately there is a dilemma of what to do with these young mercenaries when their armies are defeated. Do we hold these children, most of whom haven’t even reached puberty yet, responsible for the bloodshed and violence that they have been a part of?…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you think child soldiers should be given amnesty for crimes while in the military? Many children were taken away from their families and were put to commit crimes. I believe that children should be given amnesty. Although some people might not agree with me, several reasons support my opinion. My first reason is that children can get hurt or can get injured.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When it comes to the topic of child soldiers, most of us will agree that it is wrong. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if they should be prosecuted or granted amnesty. Whereas some are convinced that they are guilty of killing innocent people, others maintain the view that they could never have gotten out of the situation. First off, the children are forced into it. They are threatened with being guns and other weapons.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First reason child soldiers should not be prosecuted is because some of have no choice but to join rebel group. Children are often forced into fighting. They are following order from adults that are leading them. It's not like they chose to do this. The recruiters make children use drugs and alcohol to make them commit acts they would not commit.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Alert Child Soldiers

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages

    YELLOW= BEFORE ORANGE= AFTER PINK=CITED QUOTE All around the world there are desperate children being abducted and brainwashed into child soldiers. Children as young as 5 are taken, given a gun and told to kill others or die. If these kids do get rescued by peacekeepers they go into rehabilitation. Child soldiers deserve amnesty because they were just desperate children who were abducted and brainwashed into killing. Around the world innocent children 5-18 are being terribly captured.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays