CHILD SOLDIERS: AN AFFRONT TO HUMANITY
One of the most alarming trends relating to children and armed conflicts is their participation as active soldiers. Children as young as 8 years of age are being forcibly recruited, coerced and induced to become combatants. Manipulated by adults, children have been drawn into violence that they are too young to resist and with consequences they cannot imagine.
The children most likely to become soldiers are from impoverished and marginalized backgrounds or separated from their families. Children from wealthier and more educated families are often left undisturbed or are released if their parents can ransom them back.
Child soldiers are recruited in many different ways. Some are conscripted, others are press-ganged or kidnapped, and still others are forced to join armed groups to defend their families. In many instances, recruits are arbitrarily seized from the streets, or even from schools and orphanages, when armed militia, police or army cadres roam the streets, picking up anyone they encounter. Hunger and poverty may drive parents to offer their children for service; armies may even pay a child soldier‘s wage directly to the family. And parents may encourage their daughters to become soldiers if their marriage prospects are poor.
Sometimes, children become soldiers simply in order to survive. Indeed, a military unit can be something of a refuge, serving as a kind of surrogate family. Children may join if they believe that this is the only way to guarantee regular meals, clothing or medical attention.
Children are also used as soldiers in support functions such as cooks, porters, messengers and spies. While these may seem to be less harmful, these functions entail great hardship and risk bringing all children under suspicion. Reports tell of forces deliberately killing even the youngest children on the grounds that they were dangerous. For girls, their participation often entails being forced to provide sexual service. While children of both sexes might start out in indirect support functions, it does not take long before they are placed in the heat of the battle, where their inexperience and lack of training leave them particularly vulnerable.
At the age of 13, I joined the student movement. I had a dream to contribute to make things change, so that children would not be hungry.... Later I joined the armed struggle. I had all the inexperience and the fears of a little girl. I found out that girls were obliged to have sexual relations to alleviate the sadness of the combatants. And who alleviated our sadness after going with someone we hardly knew?... There is a great pain in my being when I recall all these things.... In spite of my commitment, they abused me, they trampled my human dignity. And above all, they did not understand that I was a child and that I had rights. (From a Honduras case study)
Preventing the future use of children in armed conflict
Building on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a number of organizations are working to raise the minimum age for recruitment and participation in armed forces to 18 years. In 1994, a United Nations working group was established to develop an Optional Protocol to the Convention in order to achieve this.
Several measures have been identified which can reinforce the local capacity to minimize or prevent the use of children as soldiers. For example, local communities should be made more aware of national and international laws governing the age of recruitment. Non-governmental organizations, religious groups and civil society in general can play important roles in establishing ethical frameworks that characterize children‘s participation in armed conflicts as unacceptable. In Peru, forced recruitment drives have declined where parish churches have denounced the activity. In El Salvador, Guatemala and Paraguay, ethnic groups and the mothers of child soldiers have formed organizations to pressure authorities for the release of under-age soldiers. Another important preventive measure is the active and early documentation and tracing of unaccompanied children in refugee or displaced persons camps. Locating refugee camps far from conflict zones can also reduce the chance of children being enticed or recruited into warring groups.
I know the occassional cadet gets deployed (Senior Cadet goes on board a ship, and gets some basic...boatswain training, I think...I‘ll look into it. But the rough equiv. would be like an army cadet doing Para, except the Sea Cadet doesn‘t get any official qualification I don‘t think), but it‘s getting rarer and rarer, and it also depends on where the units are located (i.e. Central vs. Pac vs. Atlantic)
