It includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and forced marriage. It does not, therefore, refer exclusively to a child who is carrying or has carried arms. (Legrand 4).
Child soldiers often regret the actions that they took part in during wartime and some embrace the lifestyle and become part of it out of free will. Therefore, I believe that prosecution of child soldiers should be seen as a case by case situation. Recently children in combat have become an epidemic, however, child soldiers have been used for quite some years. “Child combatants have been found on battlefields throughout history. Perhaps the most notable example is the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) in the closing days of World War II.” (Kaplan). Countries that are at constant war or villages in constant battle seem to have the highest concentration of such soldiers. Dominican Republic of Congo (DRC) has been using child soldiers since 1998. They have killed almost three million people and were forced to commit acts of necrophilia and cannibalism. Many countries have crossed numerous lines of human rights without consequence