Children Soldiers

Children soldiers

In the 1970s, children soldiers came about. Countries such as Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia express the use of having children soldiers. This places danger on young children. At times, they do not really become soldiers until them or their parents come to a decision or they are usually forced by a violent power. For example, in Iraq, under Hussein’s reign, they conducted boot camps for children between the ages 12 and 17 and all who refused to join the boot camp were punished. America has fought to put an end to such cruelty in Iraq several times. This violent act affects human rights because of innocent children forced to become a soldier at such an early age.

The U.S created laws to put an to child soldiers. One law they created was the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008. They also withhold money for countries that need it who supports the child soldiers. Governments respond to the issue through the United Nation. So, the United Nations Security Council passed resolutions under the heading of “Children in armed conflict”. In the last meeting on July 17, 2008 the came up with a first resolution is called Resolution 1261 and it was passed in 1999. The UN decided to have an action plan to establish a monitoring, reporting, and compliance mechanism which decreases the amount of money in countries who support the child soldiers. Also, diplomacy is involved with it. Interventionism has worked its way since the country is in need of money and Imperialism has fallen since the UN decided to go to Iraq.

The efforts and policies they place in effect by the government and international organizations became a success. Now, it is illegal to have children soldiers. Protest or movements have been about to finally stop the act of child soldiers since it really is not stopped completely. I believe what should be done is to address and stress more on human rights to find important targets that uses the use of child soldiers and take them away.