Hello Cent Platform!
I'm glad to bring to you one of the major crimes against humanity committed by rebel groups in Africa and other Third World nations across the world. Today we'll be looking at the implications of child soldiers on national security. Good evening!
In the Declaration of the Rights of the child one of the clearly stated right is the right to education for all children across the world, but this rights have been breached by some armed groups and insurgents as well as military across Africa.
What Constitutes Child Soldier?
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under national legislation. This means any child that is recruited into the military or used by any armed group amounts to child soldier and thereby violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child.
It's true that must children are used by armed groups to spy and as informants in order to deceive their opponents on who the individual is. Also, national military usually use children when they're short of personnel but my major challenge is what happens to these children during the post conflict periods.
child soldiers post-conflict traumas
A child still remains a child irrespective of the role they play during conflicts and this roles also have negative impact on the future of the child. Most of these child soldiers were exposed to early sex and also forced by their superiors to engage in sexual violence and abuses.
After conflicts are over, these children will want to continue in some of those acts that they learnt from the battlefield.
The United Nations has also made efforts to treat child soldiers during post conflict.
Children who survive combat face another set of obstacles when trying to reenter normal civilian life. While former soldiers were provided with resources like food, water, shelter, security, and family reunification, they still needed help processing their experience and reconnecting with their communities after being separated for so long. Many communities view these children as rebels incapable of making the transition back into society, this doubt from the community caused many to get pulled back into the army. Organizations like UNICEF realized that child soldiers need mental help in addition to physical help to be able to reintegrate.
Finally, children all over the world deserves better life and quality education and the safety of our society depends on how we treat them. Give them a better life today.