Child Soldiers: Guilty or Not?
As a child who was forced from a very young age to commit major war crimes, would you want to be held accountable for your involuntary actions, and then go to jail for them?
Child amnesty: the act of forgiving a child. But would you forgive a child for a war crime? Since around 1993, children from various different countries like Burundi, Colombia, Liberia, Myanmar, and Uganda are being taken from their homes and then being forced to fight in war, sometimes even having to kill people. These kids, all under the age of eighteen, some as young as nine, are chosen because they are vulnerable. Children are easy to take, they are easy to boss around, and they are easy to manipulate. Now children who commited past war crimes are being put on trial, and they face the danger of going to jail for the rest of their lives. No child should be punished so harshly for something they were forced to do as a child. These children, in being prosecuted, deserve amnesty. …show more content…
These children are “following orders of adults rather than acting of their own free will” Debatewise.org’s “Should Child Soldiers…” notes. In addition to the commanders making the children be a part of their awful groups, they are giving kids drugs and alcohol to make them more willing to commit the crimes. These kids are being bribed and would never commit crimes unless someone made or convinced them to. Clearly the children didn’t understand the cruelty of the crimes they were committing, simply because they were told to do so by adults. Yes; some kids have chosen to be in these terror groups, and are willing to kill people and commit war crimes, but that is not the case for the majority of these
As a child who was forced from a very young age to commit major war crimes, would you want to be held accountable for your involuntary actions, and then go to jail for them?
Child amnesty: the act of forgiving a child. But would you forgive a child for a war crime? Since around 1993, children from various different countries like Burundi, Colombia, Liberia, Myanmar, and Uganda are being taken from their homes and then being forced to fight in war, sometimes even having to kill people. These kids, all under the age of eighteen, some as young as nine, are chosen because they are vulnerable. Children are easy to take, they are easy to boss around, and they are easy to manipulate. Now children who commited past war crimes are being put on trial, and they face the danger of going to jail for the rest of their lives. No child should be punished so harshly for something they were forced to do as a child. These children, in being prosecuted, deserve amnesty. …show more content…
These children are “following orders of adults rather than acting of their own free will” Debatewise.org’s “Should Child Soldiers…” notes. In addition to the commanders making the children be a part of their awful groups, they are giving kids drugs and alcohol to make them more willing to commit the crimes. These kids are being bribed and would never commit crimes unless someone made or convinced them to. Clearly the children didn’t understand the cruelty of the crimes they were committing, simply because they were told to do so by adults. Yes; some kids have chosen to be in these terror groups, and are willing to kill people and commit war crimes, but that is not the case for the majority of these