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Child Soldiers in Conflicts Around the World

Child Soldiers in Conflicts Around the World. By Stephanie Adams, Olivia Clarke, Jessica Orr, Shannon Gregg and Tara Dempsey. History of Uganda. In 1986, power transferred from the people of Northern to Southern tribes.

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Child Soldiers in Conflicts Around the World

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  1. Child Soldiers in Conflicts Around the World By Stephanie Adams, Olivia Clarke, Jessica Orr, Shannon Gregg and Tara Dempsey.

  2. History of Uganda • In 1986, power transferred from the people of Northern to Southern tribes. • This was not liked in the North and a civil war was started in Northern Uganda because of this. • The main contributors in this is The Lord's Resistance Army. (LRA) • They were made by a spiritual guru and they have been trying to regain control from the ruling Acholi tribe. • Sadly they use innocent citizens to make the government look good.

  3. Facts • There are around 300,000 child soldiers, in the world today. • In some countries the children can be as young as seven. • The average age of a child soldier is 13. • A third or more of child soldiers are reported to be girls. • Violent abductions, sometimes of large numbers of children, continue to occur in some countries. Children as young as nine have been abducted and used in combat. • Many of the child soldiers are age 12 of younger. Boys are forced to kill with guns. Girls are sexually attacked. • Children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, living on the streets, living in a combat zone or have limited access to education.

  4. What they have to do • Once recruited, child soldiers may serve as porters or cooks, guards, messengers or spies. Many are pressed into combat, where they may be forced to the front lines or sent into minefields ahead of older troops. Some children have been used for suicide missions. • In some conflicts, girls may be raped, or given to military commanders as "wives.“ • They sometimes are forced to commit violence against their own family or neighbours. this helps ensure that the child is "stigmatized" and unable to return to his or her home community.

  5. Punishments • If the children don’t do as they are told, they are sadly beaten, whipped, and forced to stare at the sun as punishment for disobeying orders. • A whipping means being beaten with sticks, ropes, and fists. • Sometimes, commanders would arrest girls and women with whom he wanted to have sex and the girls were only around 15 or 16 years-old. • If they say anything wrong, the commanders would slash their mouths open or cut their ears, hands or feet.

  6. Why children join? • Many adults in Uganda die of HIV or aids, so young children are orphans and many are made to look after younger siblings. • These children often end up on the streets. They think it would be good to join for the security and routine. • Some children are taken unwillingly from their homes or schools and made to fight. • They might see all their friends joining and think they will become tough, but they soon see that the truth is not reality.

  7. Who helps? • Redcross.org.uk • Warchild.org • SOS Child Soldier Programme • save the children.org.uk • Unicef.org.uk • child-soldiers.org • 12 February: Red Hand DayThe optional procedure to the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force on the 12 February 2002. Since then, this day has become the international day against the use of child soldiers and is also called "Red Hand Day". The red hand means: Stop!

  8. Case-studies “The first time I went into battle I was afraid. But after two or three days they forced us to start using cocaine, and then I lost my fear. When I was taking drugs, I never felt bad on the front. Human blood was the first thing I would have every morning. It was my coffee in the morning… every morning.” -Ibrahim, 16 “They beat all the people there, old and young, they killed them all, nearly 10 people…like dogs they killed them…I didn’t kill anyone, but I saw them killing…the children who were with them killed too…with weapons… they made us drink the blood of people, we took the blood from the dead into the bowl and they made us drink…then when they killed the people they made us eat their liver, their heart, which they took out an sliced and fried…And they made us little ones eat.” Path at age 11 sources from; http://www.freethechildren.org/peace/voices.html

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