Are child soldiers the same as child criminals?

     Go out, shoot, be fed drugs, repeat, be killed in the process or be freed, only to meet the uncomfortable bars of a jail cell. This is the life of most child soldiers. Once finally freed out of this brutal system they are punished for murder and have to spend the beginning of a proper life, locked up. Most child soldiers are forced into fighting and have no control over their actions. However some believe that child soldiers should be punished because if they are not then the number of child soldiers will continue growing. Rehabilitation should be the aim not punishment.

     Almost all the time child soldiers are forced into fighting, by the adult commanders or by themselves. A lot of the time they have no say in becoming a soldier. If a war is going on in the country and soldiers are needed to fight, children are often recruited. Because their brain has not fully developed, they can easily be shaped to think new things. Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier states that a way the commanders ‘brainwash’ you is to “Feed you drugs and then kill people in front of you to desensitize you and then be fed more drugs”. Is forcing them to take drugs and then shooting someone right in front of their eyes really how we want to raise a generation of children? Children often apply to become child soldiers as well. Even though they choose to apply, they are not necessarily ‘forced’ into joining but there can be huge pressure to that it almost feels as though they are being forced to. Because war is almost always in 3rd world countries and countries that have a lot of poverty, children think that going to a military camp will provide food and shelter, something they don’t have. “Children go to military camps because the don’t know what to do with their life anymore”. Most of the child soldiers no longer have families because they were killed and have no idea what to do. Some of these children who have witnessed their families being killed join military camps to get revenge. People think that fighting is a way that people can take their anger out but once out on the field everything changes and ideas of revenge seem to slip away as fear comes flooding in. By the time children realize that it’s not what they want, it’s too late and they’d probably be dead.

     In order to stay alive in the battle field they need to do whatever the adult commanders say, this means that they don’t have much control over their actions. The commanders usually control the children using fear and ‘brainwashing’ them. Fear is easily used to control the child soldiers because most of them have had a very difficult past. “Because you have lost everything that is there to you, this is how you bring children to war, you destroy their towns, their families...”. They haunt the children using their past’s and because they don’t have anything left they listen. “and then you can manipulate them and drug them so they do whatever you want them to do”. It is human nature to attach on to something, a group of people that you can call family. So when children are left without any thing, they look to the group of other child soldiers and commanders. They have no control over who they get to be with and it’s not their fault that they want someone to call family. “[You] Become so removed from exhibiting human emotion so this becomes your life, your reality, the group becomes your family”

     Some people think that child soldiers should be punished as they are dangerous after have being known nothing but killing. Omar Khadr, a former child soldier who was put into jail for killing Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer. For most people this seems like a normal war crime or that Omar would be the victim as he was forced to kill. But because “when Khadr was angry at his guards, he would recall how he had killed a U.S. soldier and that would make him happy” it makes you wonder about how dangerous he really is. Because he feels pride in killing Speer it can be scary to let him back out when he thinks it is okay to kill. When child soldiers get to this stage they then start to become child criminals.

Should Child Soldiers be Prosecuted for their crimes or be victims of war?

250,000 child soldiers are still in action this very moment. That statistic is shocking. In fact, the number needs to be cut down as these young people can do other things in life rather than being part of violence and war that can potentially kill them. Speaking of the issue the United Nations are debating whether they should prosecute child soldiers or call them victims of war. Even though there are arguments on both sides on whether they should be prosecuted or be victims, it really depends on the scenario. Though this will be the case I believe that most child soldiers should be named as victims of war because they were forced to do what commanders said or they would get killed, they had to go somewhere to seek refuge in a war torn area and they got drugged heavily to commit the violent action they would do. Nevertheless, child soldiers should be prosecuted for their crimes under the certain circumstances of having been responsible for many deaths, not necessarily being forced into war and they have been brainwashed into violent behaviour that could impact them to do more crimes even if there the world surrounding them is normal.

Firstly child soldiers are victims of war as they as they are forced to do what their bosses are told or otherwise severe punishments are caused on them sometimes even including death. To give some context during the war in some parts of the world child soldiers are used as a cheap and efficient form of combat on the battlefield. They have been used everywhere, from ISIS to the Sierra Leone civil war to Boko Haram (a Nigerian terrorist group). Not only are child soldiers cheap and efficient, they will listen to what the commander says all the time. The consequence? They will get killed. Not just child soldiers have to listen to the commander's instructions. Former child soldier Ishmael Beah talks about in his book “A Long Way Gone” on when the rebels raided villages they would capture children and kill the parents. “If they did not kill the parents the rebels did force children to do sexual things with their parents to be safe”. Imagine this yourself, a war is a life and death scenario and you could anyways die in battle. The commanders will instruct more things for you to do like kill your parents and if you refused you have invited yourself to another opportunity to get killed. This whole scenario is a life and death situation or a do or die position. Do what they say or get punished and die. Now while this may be true, this might be the case some child soldiers should deserve to be prosecuted as though they did have to kill people and do other favours so they themselves do not get killed, they were responsible for many deaths. To this day children at war are responsible for killing many civilians, Debatewise.org talks about how child soldiers are no different to child criminals and how they act. In the Sierra Leone civil war child soldiers have committed actions in rape, mutilation and mass killing of civilians. All three of these actions involve a lot of people and people being affected somehow. Not only that but children as young as the age of 8 are becoming criminals of war and doing such actions. Overall child soldiers are victims of war because of the things they are forced to do by their bosses but can be charged with prosecution for being responsible for many deaths.

Secondly child soldiers should be victims of war as some of them have nowhere to seek refuge as their homes have been raided and the only place to stay and provide the basic needs are military camps In many war-torn areas in third world countries, people are living in abandoned areas or they are living in areas that can be destroyed soon. Before child soldiers were even hired they lived with their families. In fact They were forced out and sometimes captured from their unsafe homes. Ishmael Beah mentioned in a long way gone that after his village got raided and the child soldier organisation released him he had nowhere to go and nowhere to stay so he had to walk many miles with other kids who needed to seek refuge somewhere. He later found a soldier camp where the commander enrolled him straight off and he had a place to stay and have food. Millions of kids like Ishmael have to face such events and you can not prosecute a child soldier if they are fighting for their survival. The children have no money no food no water, nothing other than the clothes they are wearing and maybe some valuables but that is about it. They are just regular people suffering from the demand of basic needs and the violence part is not really their fault as the commanders just put them there and have to follow his instructions as I mentioned in the previous paragraph why. In my point of view, some children should be victims as they need somewhere to seek refuge. Despite this, that is not the case for all child soldiers. In fact, some are not necessarily forced into war and can do serious crimes and shady business. A great example would be Omar Khadr. He is the son of a former Al-Qaeda and was brought back to Afghanistan at the age of 15 during that time he had killed a sergeant in the US army by the name of Christopher Speer. Omar was later convicted in jail at Guantanamo Bay for 8 years for this. We do not know if he did was trying to protect himself or if he did it on accident or purpose but he did commit a huge crime and even reports say that he was very happy to kill someone. Now though people might argue all the cases of him being a victim, he was under the influence of his dad and he was not forced into the war. He did not have to flee his destroyed village. He did not need to seek refuge somewhere to survive. He has no reason to be a victim as he was not forced in any way. Overall it depends on the scenario a child soldier is to be accused of murder or be called victim.

Last but not least child soldiers should be called for as victims of war as they are drugged heavily to cause such crimes to humanity. Commanders drug the children heavily so that the children can cause the violence behaviour needed and also for them to listen to the commanders. Ishmael Beah said in his book and in an interview on CBC’s The Hour that they would “fight, eat, be feed drugs, watch war movies and sleep until the next day where the cycle goes again”. These kids had marijuana, cocaine, brown brown, all sorts of drugs. I understand why the commanders would do a thing as child soldiers are cheap, yes to be punished and for them to listen so they feel that they are under their orders. You can not prosecute a child for actions they did not control themselves. The drugs intoxicated their brain which caused them to lose self-control meaning they did what they were heard and not with their head. Overall some child soldiers can be called victims as they could not control their actions to cause such crimes because of the drugs they were heavily dosed with. However, they should be prosecuted because of the brainwashing effect. Because of the drugs the kids are brainwashed into violent behaviour and the thought that they are doing this for the country though the Sierra Leone war had child soldiers fighting for the rebels. People might say child soldiers should be prosecuted is that because of the crimes they did society and the officials do not know if they will cause violent behaviour in society even after jail time or months in rehab. Even with Omar Khadr’s case in court the public wanted him to be free but the officials were having some sort of argument over this as he had killed a sergeant from the US army and he has a potential of causing more crimes. Would you want a former killer in your society? Overall child soldiers can be victims as they are not responsible for their violent actions because of the drugs but they can be prosecuted as they are a killer and you never know if they will more violent things after the release

To conclude is depends on the scenarios child soldiers have been in, what they have done and their surroundings but, in my opinion most child soldiers should be victims as there are more child soldiers in the world that have been in more situations in which they have not done anything wrong or little wrong compared to child soldiers in situations that they have done a lot wrong. This issue matters as there are many children as I stated in the introduction that are in violent zones and has been captured and forced to do things against their will rather than having an education and grow up to have a good job.

Works Cited:


Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.

"Child Soldiers, Prosecution." | Debatewise. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2016.

Prasow, Andrea. "The Child Soldier on Trial at Guantanamo." Human Rights Watch. N.p., 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 02 June 2016.

TheHour. "Ishmael Beah -- Child Soldier." YouTube. YouTube, 01 May 2007. Web. 02 June 2016.