Child Soldiers and Human Trafficking - Research Paper Example

Child Soldiers and Human Trafficking Child Soldiers and Human Trafficking A child soldier is anyone below the age of majority who is part of any sort of regular or irregular armed force or group. Child soldiers are involved in adult fights, laying mines, scouting, drilling, and other operations. These activities performed by child soldiers might be taken for granted but are actually against child’s rights according to convention on the rights of the children. Children from poor families are the most vulnerable victims of exploitation as child soldiers (Farrell, 2011). Children are a major focus as soldiers because it is very easy to manipulate them. Those who use child soldiers can doctor them to perform crimes and other main atrocities without asking questions. The most vulnerable group of individuals who are victims of human trafficking is the children who are engaged in commercial sex activities. Human trafficking can also take other forms where individuals engage into different forms of labor activities like domestic work and farm work. Human trafficking is common in the developing countries, and the main victims of these inhumane acts are the aliens residing there (Shelley, 2010). Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in countries like the United States. Researches are on going to establish the number of so-far trafficked persons. However, the outstanding number of children estimated to have been trafficked and assimilated into the sex trade range between hundred thousand to two hundred thousand. Human trafficking and child soldiers have a direct connection in that both are forms of violation against human rights and raise the level of slavery in a given country. The consent of the victim in both cases is not considered, and the individuals are literally forced into the specific activity intended by the perpetrator. Both situations are involuntary servitudes and include schemes, plans, or patterns intended to cause a person undergo threatened abuse. The two situations are common in elemental factors as they entail fraud, force, and coercion in the control of the subjects. However, the control is tied to the induction of an individual to forced services with little or no pay (Reich & Gates, 2010). The main victims of child soldiers and human trafficking are the children. The perpetrators abduct their specific audience from homes or social institutions and force them to become members of a specific group. The abducted individuals are tortured, brutally indoctrinated, and intoxicated with mind-altering drugs. They might also be threatened with death if they fail to obey the orders of their masters. The issue of child soldiers began to be viewed in the context of the international human rights in the early 1990s. Since then significant measures have been taken to end the children’s involvement in armed conflict. Due to the establishment of the UN-led monitoring and reporting systems, there has been some progress in child protection against abuse. A greater milestone was arrived at when a special court in Sierra Leone held prosecutions to try individuals involved in children hostilities and related crimes (Christen & Levinson, 2003). The quantity of child soldiers is increasing greatly in the third world countries, mostly in Africa and other states that have high levels of poverty and disease. Rebel groups also widely use children for different purposes. Contributing Factors of Child Soldiers The number of child soldiers has been increasing recently in most of the world countries. One of the leading factors leading to the use of child soldiers is inadequate personnel in the military of some countries. In any given country, the armed forces have the obligation to protect the government and the public. However, this goal has not been achieved in most of the countries simply because of preceding wars or social strife (Briggs, 2005). The economies of these countries are ruined and they are unable to provide necessities to the citizens. The government or the army acquires children to provide security forces. According to the current research, poverty is another major factor contributing to the issue of child soldiers. Poverty leads to food shortages and extreme poverty and food shortages force some parents let their children to be soldiers in the rebel groups in order to get food and money from them. These children act as the breadwinners for their families. This is most probably the reason, due to which the quantity of child soldiers in the third world countries is increasing. Another explanation to the increase in the number of child soldiers is the recent sense of globalization and the sale of smaller and lighter arms that the children can comfortably handle. The story behind the manufacture of small lightweight firearms is very interesting (Egyesült, 2007). The facilitators believe that the intimidating factor of a child holding an AK-47 gun is higher than when an adult holds the same weapon. A soldier is more likely to hesitate before shooting a child than before shooting an adult. The reluctance of the professional military to fire at children gives them an additional advantage especially if they are trained to shoot accurately and quickly. Another factor that contributes to child soldiers being preferred is that they do not follow any specific rule of war during fight. Units containing child soldiers violate many human rights rules on and off the battlefield. By so doing, the child soldiers complicate the matter. Child soldiers do not take prisoners of war but instead clear all through inflicting death. In addition, the style of fighting of the children is very different from that of the conventionally trained soldiers (Aronowitz, 2009). This gives them a higher chance of winning in the battle. In addition, battles involving children as the combatants have a very high demoralizing effect on the professional forces of countries that have great value for children. Hitler used this technique of child soldiers to demoralize American soldiers in the battlefield immediately during the Second World War. Countries With Child Soldiers The use of child soldiers in armed conflict is a morally repugnant practice. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s conflicts have children as the direct combatants. About half a million children serve in armies as the forefront soldiers. The number of children involved in global wars was large in the period of 2001-2004. Countries where the usage of children as soldiers is rampant are Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Myanmar, and Uganda. The form of child use as soldiers differs from country to another (Farrell, 2011). For instance, violence has ravaged since 1993 in Burundi where assassinations were carried out after the first president had been elected. Burundi had military shortage and thus started to recruit persons under the age of sixteen to form the military. Children, as young as ten, have played an important role in the conflict resolution as combatant troops and as an armed military group. Though major hostilities and sporadic fighting have ceased, the country still has more than five thousand children soldiers. A forty-year civil war in Colombia between the government and the paramilitary has exacted a horrible humanitarian toll. More than fourteen thousand children served as combatants, made and deployed mines, and gathered intelligence. A quarter of the child personnel were girls, and they were often forced to commit appalling acts against human rights. Generally, the problem of child soldiers is rampant in African countries (Shelley, 2010). Thousands of children have also been involved in fighting forces in Asia. In Myanmar, the case is different because the government forcefully recruits children into military. Also, there are child soldiers in Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand. The cases of child soldiers are also in Middle East, Latin America, and in Europe. As armed conflicts increase in the world, the number of children exposed to the brutalities of war increase too. Many children continue to be absorbed into the military despite the global campaign against the vice. Children absorbed into the military are affected either directly or indirectly. The girl child is always on the risk of being raped or exposed to other forms of inhumane treatment (Reich & Gates, 2010). Child soldiers are thus deprived of their basic constitutional rights. Most of them die or get bad injures during battles. Their relatives and the general community are negatively biased about them so they are unwilling to accept them back in to the society. Different countries deal differently with the crimes against children’s rights. Many countries have signed and ratified the convention of child’s rights protocol. Most of these countries, however, lack effective enforcement bodies, and that is why the international bodies have come in to settle matters of child soldiers in these countries. The case of Thomas Lubanga, for instance, in the ICC was a positive step towards end of impunity for recruitment of children and their utilization in hostilities (Christen & Levinson, 2003). The Crime Against Kobe Recently, the basketball star Kobe Bryant had accusations leveled against him of having raped a girl named Farber. The incidence caused many debates on whether or not Bryant could be a rapist. However, only the two know the case. Farber had filed a case through her prosecutor for having been sexually assaulted by the basketball celebrity. She, however, faced the reaction hard to accept because the public was supporting Bryant and proving his innocence. Farber received harassment and even death threats from the supporters of Kobe Bryant. The case of Bryant was retracted from the court, and the girl is receiving accusations of being a gold-digging plaintiff (Farrell, 2011). It is now clear from the Bryant’s case that celebrities are not perpetrators of rape, nor should they be involved in civil suits for sexual assaults. The thinking of many is that most of the commoners want to wreck the lives of celebrities and benefit from them. Human Trafficking as a Crime Human trafficking is a criminal act and a violation of human rights. It can amount to prosecution in the court of law. The human trafficking act is growing very fast in the world because it is the second largest criminal industry in the western countries. Different countries have raised different charges against persons found to engage in human trafficking. For example, in Canada anyone who recruits, transports, or harbors a person for exploiting purposes is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable for life imprisonment or an imprisonment for a term of not less than fourteen years. Generally, the actual laws against trafficking differ from one country to another depending on its legislation (Egyesült, 2007). Identification of Child Soldiers Most countries recruit child soldiers because the number of adults willing to become soldiers is not enough. Acquisition of the potential children occurs in various ways: some are conscripted, others are press-ganged, and others forced to join armed forces in order to defend their families. The increasing number of child soldiers is due to the increased number of the armed conflicts among countries or illegal groups. Under these situations, countries tend to get younger personnel. In addition to forceful recruitment, some children voluntarily offer themselves as soldiers. More often, cultural, socio-political, or economic pressures force those who voluntarily present themselves (Reich & gates, 2010). Some parents also encourage their children to join the military in areas stricken by hunger, for them to be able to provide basic needs. Many child soldiers willingly enter military forces but remain subject to manipulation and internal pressures from friends and families. International bodies and non-governmental organizations have laid strategies on how to identify child soldiers, rehabilitate them, and absorb them back into the society. Most governments are supporting policies of demobilization and reintegration of child soldiers. New institutions are coordinated to implement activities proposed by political leaders concerning child soldiers (Ensalaco & Majka, 2005). The ministries of defense in various countries have mandate to identify any form of child abuse. The ministries of human rights are also in action to coordinate and demobilize any form of child abuse. Conclusion The social workers have adopted an integral approach to put aside the military life of these children and prepare them to assume their normal civilian life. Their basic function is to reinsert the child soldiers back into the society. However, it is the role of the society to welcome them back. The social workers have a goal of de-traumatizing these child soldiers and integrate them back into the society. The reception of these children back has been a dream. Most families have refused to accept their children back because they were afraid that they might be killers (Shelley, 2010). Other families accept them back but they taunt and ridicule them. The social workers experience many difficulties when they cannot trace the families of the child soldiers in the rural villages. However, cases of orphaned children have been worse. References Aronowitz, A. (2009). Human Trafficking, Human Misery. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Briggs, J. (2005). Innocents Lost. New York: Basic Books. Christensen, K & Levinson, D. (2003). Encyclopedia of Community. Los Angeles: SAGE. Egyesült, A. (2007). Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Ensalaco, M. & Majka, L. (2005). Childrens Human Rights. Rowman & Littlefield. Farrell, C. (2011). Human Trafficking. New Delhi: ABDO. Reich, S. & Gates, S. (2010). Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States. Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Pre. Shelley, L. (2010). Human Trafficking. New York: Cambridge University Press. Read More