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The Issue About Child Soldiers

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The Issue About Child Soldiers
How and why children are used in conflict
Ways in which their human rights are being abused

Child soldiers is a serious issue worldwide, there are about 300,000 children as young as nine years old involved in armed conflicts all around the globe today. This problem is most critical in Africa; however children are also used as soldiers in various Asian countries, parts of Latin America, Europe and Middle East. Children are used as child soldiers mostly by non government armed groups for many different reasons. Conditions are usually very harsh for the child soldiers and discipline is kept by brutal punishment. Life is very dangerous and characterized by a great amount of hard work in an environment that lack food, drinking water and no sanitation, many children die from these causes under such inhuman conditions. The use of child soldiers is totally unacceptable and against human rights. The child soldiers’ basic rights are being abused in many different ways by being forced to fight.

Child soldiers are being used for many reasons by non government armed groups. Children are frequently killed and injured while forced to carry out life threatening task such as laying mines or explosives this is totally against the children’s human rights, the basic entitlements all human being should have regardless of age, sex, gender, religion, and politics. Other jobs that are given to child soldiers are fighters, messengers, porters, spies and cooks. Children lived under constant fears of being trapped in an ambush, landmines or gunfire. Girls are used as child soldiers as well in fact approximately one third of child soldiers are girls, they are given the same job as the boys but are used as a sex slaves and forced to be the “wives” of the commander. Girls are often infected with sexually transmitted diseases or HIV/AIDS and have great possibilities of being pregnant. Children are mainly use for the conflicts between the government and rebel groups for political powers. A

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