Essay Sample on Protecting Children in Conflict: A Global Responsibility

Introduction

Protecting children from conflict is international security and peace responsibility. The global bodies such as the United Nations, United Nations Security Council among several other international organizations have called for international collaboration in protecting children from harm. An essential aspect of the agenda for the international community is to ensure that children remain safe in the conflict regions. Gross violation of children's rights happens through the recruitment of children as soldiers.

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Geneva conventions and conventions prohibit the recruitment of the children as soldiers on children's rights. The international court of criminal justice declares the persons involved in recruiting children under 18 years to have committed war crimes. The African Charter also considers it a crime for the involvement of children below the age of 18 years into armed conflict as soldiers (Smith, 2016). The international labor laws also prohibit engaging children services ina nay form of labor. The united nation Security Council has called for the member states to criminalize the use of child soldiers through their national laws.

The recruitment of child soldiers is against human and children rights as declared in the United Nations convention for child rights. The United Nations had identified several cases when the children were used as soldiers in Africa and other war-torn countries (Machakanja, 2014). The international humanitarian law sets the age minimum age of eighteen years for participation in the armed hostilities. Such cases warrant the arrest and the prosecution of the perpetrators in the international criminal justice or through local mechanisms with the intervention of international watch groups (Kuniewicz, 2015). South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are some of the countries in recent history with cases of recruited child soldiers (Okebukola, 2014). Often the children in conflict-prone countries are abducted and forced into the training by force to participate in the war. The results are detrimental to the child's emotional, social, and physical development and stability. Children engaged in the battle as soldiers lack education and other necessities such as food and healthcare services (Johannessen & Holgersen, 2014).

Both girls and boys participate in armed conflicts as soldiers in an exercise characterized by sexual and physical abuse, especially for the young girl's soldiers. The children fight frontline battles assigned different roles as massagers, spies, sexual slaves, and suicide missions (Kingsley, 2017). The children engaged in the war as soldiers suffer from mental torture forced recruitment, and the physical pain they endure in the war. A range of human rights violations includes the child's freedom of religion and sexual violence. Physical abuse and the right to life as some have lost their lives on the battlefields (Kiyala, 2016). Some children have to endure extreme pain through the mutilation of their body parts through torture. The children soldiers suffer from lack of parental care and guidance, which exposes them to emotional instability in later stages of development (Smith, 2016).

Conclusion

The recruitment of children soldiers is against international law and violates children's rights. Children soldier's rights get violated through sexual violence and torture from the war. The children get exposed to psychological trauma. Other grows violations include abduction and lack of necessities such as education, food, shelter. Children are surviving as soldiers lose life in the line of duty. Other violations include exposure to psychological, physical as well as emotional torture exposing them to severe developmental challenges during their later stages of development. Children involved in the war as soldiers lack the parental care and guidance required at their tender age.

References

Johannessen, S., & Holgersen, H. (2014). Former child soldiers' problems and needs: Congolese https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1049732313513655

Kingsley, B. V. (2017). The effects that war has on children and child soldiers. https://commons.emich.edu/honors/527/

Kiyala, J. C. K. (2016). The impact of globalization on child soldiering: challenges and opportunities in the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo. International Social Science Journal, 66(221-222), 271-284. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/issj.12132

Kuniewicz, A. (2015). International Criminal Court Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda. Chi.-Kent J. Int' l & Comp. L., 15, 1. https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/chkjicl15&section=8

Machakanja, P. (2014). Reintegration of child soldiers: A case of Southern Sudan. Building Peace from Within, 88-90. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=y_YLAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA85&dq=Machakanja,+P.+(2014).+Reintegration+of+child+soldiers:+A+case+of+Southern+Sudan.+Building+Peace+from+Within,+88-90.&ots=hqvw5xxiQm&sig=W8mJ4D177h6mS6SBcljLolOHap8&redir_esc=y

Okebukola, E. O. (2014). Training Children for Armed Conflict-Where Does the Law Stand? International criminal law review, 14(3), 588-618. https://brill.com/view/journals/icla/14/3/article-p588_4.xml

Smith, R. K. (2016). Textbook on international human rights. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=37jmCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Smith,+R.+K.+(2016).+Textbook+on+international+human+rights.+Oxford+University+Press.&ots=uFy6kfLkeZ&sig=YKCcEGzW6nGxQoYQveIYqDcm6o4