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Child Soldiers

Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers. Definition of Child soldier Basic facts about Child soldiers What do Child soldiers do? Countries using Child soldiers Why child soldiers? Life experience of a Child Soldiers: Ismael Baeh and Juliet. Child Soldiers Who is a child soldier?.

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Child Soldiers

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  1. Child Soldiers

  2. Child Soldiers • Definition of Child soldier • Basic facts about Child soldiers • What do Child soldiers do? • Countries using Child soldiers • Why child soldiers? • Life experience of a Child Soldiers: Ismael Baeh and Juliet.

  3. Child SoldiersWho is a child soldier? • Any child girl or boy under the age of 18 • Participate in any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group conflicts (combatants, cooks, porters, Messengers).

  4. Child SoldiersBasic Facts • There are 300,000 children involved in armed conflicts around the world. • Child soldiers are used in more than 30 countries around the world and range in age from 5 to 17 years old. • There are approximately 70,000 children in Myanmar’s (Burma’s) government armed forces. • In Africa, they are about 120.000 children • Between 1986 and 1996 alone, 2 million children were killed in armed conflict and over 6 million children were injured. • In past conflicts 80-90 percent of casualties were adult soldiers; today, 80-90 percent of casualties are women and children.

  5. Child SoldiersWhat do child soldiers do? • Child soldiers often fight on the front lines of conflict. • They serve as scouts, spies, trainers, saboteurs, decoys, couriers, guards, and landmine clearers. • Child soldiers also work indirectly as porters and domestic servants. • Girl soldiers are often used as sex slaves or are given as rewards to male soldiers as “wives.” Source: MSNBC

  6. Child SoldiersWhere are child soldiers? Children at War Around the World Source: UN

  7. Child SoldiersWhere are child soldiers? • 300,000 children around the world are actively participating in more than 20 armed conflicts. • More than 20,000 children have been abducted and trained as soldiers by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda and Sudan since May 2002 • Some of countries that use child soldiers are Burma, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Liberia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Cote d'Ivoire.

  8. Child SoldiersWhy are there child soldiers? • Child soldiers increase the number of fighters. • Children are more easily manipulated and controlled – they are more likely to follow orders without question – than adults. • Children can hide in tight quarters because they are physically smaller than adults. • People generally do not suspect children to be soldiers, so they can slip through many security checks unexamined. • Children are regarded as more expendable than adults and less likely to run away during drawn-out conflicts.

  9. Child SoldiersWhy are there child soldiers? • Push factors • Pull factors • Pecuniary and non-pecuniary rewards • accessibility factors • easy access to large groups of children is provided in refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps

  10. Child SoldiersWhy are there child soldiers? • .

  11. Child SoldiersWhich children are affected? • Children in extreme poverty who are desperate for food and shelter. • Children without identification papers. • Orphans and children with weak family structures. • Children living in refugee camps or conflict zones. Source: UN

  12. Child SoldiersHow children become soldiers? • By forced abduction : in many areas, children -some as young as nine years old are taken from their homes and forced to fight. There have also been cases of mass abductions, where many children at one time are taken to serve in the conflicts. • By recruitment, or volunteering : becoming a soldier may be an economic necessity for some children. They may have a better chance to survive ( food, shelter, water etc.) • The idea of revenge: the children may have witnessed violence against their families. For some joining the military will help them to avenge their parents and families members.

  13. Child SoldiersWhat’s being done to help child soldiers return to normal life? • Disarmament: to remove all weapons from the child. • Demobilization: the point at which the child leaves military life. • Rehabilitation and Reintegration: to prepare a child to return to normal life. • Can be difficult for child to readjust. • The UN and NGOs try to provide psychological support, education, and job training. Source: BBC

  14. Child SoldiersConsequences • Psychological consequences • Physical consequences

  15. A long way gone : Ismael Beah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfijVraAqn8 Juliet (Uganda): www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=1Mj2ooJJD3A Child SoldiersStory of child soldiers

  16. THANK YOU

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