Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone Essay

The Revolutionary United front line of sierra Le atomic number 53 (RUF/SL) invaded Sierra Leone from Liberia in March 1991. Initi eithery they claimed to be a semipolitical movement clog uping liberation and democracy. Instead the RUF, in reality, was an insecurely combined organization of mainly rebellious young people that inflicted virulent disaster through with(predicate)out the country of Sierra Leone. The political revolution means failed to attract popular support, the RUF board on a barbarian ten-year civil war that had devastating consequences for civilians, in digressicular nipperren.General Information well-nigh fry SoldiersThe seconds of baby bird soldiers argon continually vari fitting granted the growth of diverse build up conflicts. The number of children below the sequence of 18 who have been forced or induced to take up weapons system as child soldiers is commonly thought to be around of 300,000. Non-governmental force organizations tend to recruit soldiers chthonian the age of 15.Governmental gird forces, on the different hand, be more(prenominal) likely to recruit soldiers under the age of 18. From what is cognise the age of 7 is the youngest a child soldier can be. anywhere 50 countries currently take on children under the age of 18 into their militia.picFigure 1. The African situation since Africa has without all doubt the largest number of child soldiers1What is a baby Soldier?UNICEF, The United Nations boorren Fund, defines child soldiers as any childboy or girlunder eighteen historic period of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity2. agree to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Child soldiers perform a range of tasks including participation in combat, laying mines and explosives scouting, spying, acting as decoys, couriers or guards training, drill or other preparations logistics and support functions, portering, cooking and domestic cut into and sexual slavery or other enlisting for sexual purposes.3Girls are likewise called child soldiers and this is the case for umteen flat coats. Girls usually fulfil numerous roles. While they are commonly recruited and used for sexual purposes, they are intimately always also caught up in other military responsibilities. These imply battle, laying explosives, portering, and performing domestic tasks.How many a(prenominal) child soldiers are in that respect?It is difficult to give a worldwide number of child soldiers at any one time. There are various reasons as to why exact figures cannot be calculated. An example is that military commanders frequently mask children or do not allow access to observers. Armed groups regularly solve in dangerous, unapproachable zones to which observers do not have access and many children carry out support roles and are therefore not visible(a) in military operations.How do children move around soldiers?A special tell on the impact of armed conflict on children which was created in 1996 explained how children cause soldiers. In the report it is stated Hunger and poverty may elbow grease parents to offer children for service or attract children to volunteer as a way to fasten regular meals, clothing or medical attention. both(prenominal) children become soldiers to protect themselves or their families in the face of violence and nut house around them, while others, particularly adolescents, are lured by ideology. Children also chance upon with social causes, religious expression, self-determination, national liberation or the pursuit of political freedom, as in South Africa or the occupied territories.4 Another reason emphasizes the efficient value of children, especially for tedious tasks. An important explanation to sustentation in mind could be that child soldiers may be precious for signalling purposes. A rebel leader may hope to show significance, allegiance or terror through abduction of a child5. Finally, some people put forward that young children are more malleable, adaptable, and obedient, as well as more easily persuaded and deceived. Therefore they are said to be easier to manage and retain6. If children are as productive as adults, we should find a disproportionate number in armed groups.The following two case studies give examples of what a girl and a boy have gone through during Sierra Leones devastating civil war. By describing their tasks, the reasons as to why these vilify Human Rights can be clearly seen.Case Study FatmataFatmata was one of only two survivors from her village in Sierra Leone. She was barely sestet years old when she was captured by the cruel rebel groups. She was taken to a rebel stronghold and forced to work under harsh conditions as a servant. In Fatmatas own words We had to work all day while they would curse my mother and abuse me. When she got older, Fatmata was forced to become the second wife of one of her rebel captors, therefore mean ing she was dishonour and gave birth to the child of a rebel.7Case Study outcast BeahIn A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a successfully enthralling figment of his life as a child soldier. At the age of twelve, he fled from rebel attacks and wandered a land caused to be unrecognizable by brutality. By thirteen, he had been captured by the government army, and Beah, even though he was a gentle young boy at heart, found that he was overt of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was taken away from fighting by UNICEF. Beah, like many other child soldiers, had gone through devastating psychological traumas and through the help of the staff at his replenishment centre, he consumeed how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity and was finally able to heal.8Human RightsAccording to the righteousness and Reconciliations commissions report the use of local as well as planetary human rights mechanisms in responding to the shocking sinful acts that took place in Sierra Leone during the previous decade is important to the knowledge of international human rights law9. Sierra Leone became a segment of the United Nations in 1961 and is a signatory to most of the important human rights committees including the dominion of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The Government of Sierra Leone has also ratified the optional protocol. Children Rights Act has been enacted in Sierra Leone quite belatedly in 2007. The Government of Sierra Leone signed and ratified the communications protocol on 8 September 2000 and 15 May 2002. group to the Rights of a ChildThe Convention to the Rights of a Child (CRC) is built on diverse legal systems as well as cultural traditions. The Convention is a universally agreed set of fixed standards and obligations. These human rights set the least tally of pre-emptive declaration and freedoms that should be valued by governments. I n Article 38, the Convention on the Rights of the Child insist that governments to take all possible measures to guarantee that children under 15 have no ship involvement in warfare. The Convention also sets 15 years as the borderline age at which a person can be willingly recruited into or willingly signs up in the armed forces.10 elective ProtocolThe Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the contri thation of children in armed conflict symbolizes a progressive leap in the international law in order to defend children from the damaging effects of recruitment and use in warfare. The Protocol requires States who authorize it to obtain all operational measures to make sure those members who are part of their armed forces and are under the age of 18 do not have a direct involvement in the fightings. States moldiness also raise the minimum age for voluntary recruitment into the armed forces from 15 years but does not require a minimum age of 18.The Protoco l reminds States that children under 18 years are entitled to distinctive protection and so any voluntary recruitment under the age of 18 must include adequate protection. Compulsory recruitment below the age of 18 is fully banned and States parties must also take legal measures to anticipate self-governing armed groups from recruiting and using children under the age of 18 in conflicts.11 ARTICLE 1 of the Optional Protocol States Parties shall take all operable measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities. This shows that the Protocol raised the age that children are allowed to be a member of an illegal or legal armed force from 15 years to 18 years.UNICEF and The International delivery Committee and how they have helpedIn Sierra Leone, UNICEF was the lead agency for child protection, which worked with its colleagues to reduce arms, and to release and reconnect fulfil for child soldiers from 1998 to 2002.They construct protective and healthy educational environments where causality child soldiers obtain the opportunity to learn how to live without weapons, gain new skills which enables them to be prepared for their future and to learn how to become prolific citizens in their society. about importantly they are wedded a second chance to learn how to be children again. Demobilized children were moved to temporary care centres supported by UNICEF where they were given health care and also psychosocial counselling. They also participated in educational and unskilled activities while family tracing reunification was going on. A vast absolute majority of former child soldiers have been reunited with their families. Access to education and family and community support programmes have been the key to their success to help the former child soldiers12.With home plate in Freetown and three field offices in Kono, Kenema and Kailhaun districts, the International Rescue Com mittee provides programs that focus on child protection, education, and health, specifically for former child soldiers after the civil war ended in 2000. The IRC works to summation local participation in project activities, build local capacity, further and protect human rights, partner with local communities and organizations, and address relief and ontogenesis needs in a holistic fashion. The Revolutionary United effort rebels released 600 child soldiers. The International Rescue Committee provided education, skills training, and psychosocial care to 100 of them13. evidenceTo conclude, there have been many programmes that have been created to reduce and assist former child soldiers. Off course it is not possible to help every single child soldier and there are many reasons for this. any(prenominal) of the reasons are that there are still a number of these soldiers that may still be involved and their whereabouts are not known. During the civil war, many of the parents of these children were killed, so it is difficult to reunite them with their families, and if they are lucky another family member may still be alive in order to port after them. Organisations, like UNICEF, provide homes for former child soldiers who are doomed to not have anybody. By education and counselling, children learn to forgive themselves for unpeaceful crimes they were forced to commit and help themselves to progress in the future.REFERENCES Beah, I (2007). 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Available http//chrisblattman.com/documents/research/2010.IOofRebellion.pdf. Last accessed 6th December 2010. 6 Beber, B and Blattman, C. (2010). The Industrial Organization of Rebellion The Logic of Forced aim and Child Soldiering*. Available http//chrisblattman.com/documents/research/2010.IOofRebellion.pdf. Last accessed 6th December 2010. 7 UN Works. Fatmatas Story. Available http//www.un.org/works/goingon/soldiers/fatmata_story.html. Last accessed 8th December 2010. 8 Beah, I (2007). A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York Harper Perennial. p5-218. 9 Report of the Sierra Leo ne Truth & Reconciliation Commission. (2004). Children and the Armed Conflict in Sierra Leone. Vol. 3B, p231-340.10 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (1990). Convention on the Rights of the Child . Available http//www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm. Last accessed 8th December 2010. 11 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2000). 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