Child Soldiers 

Using children as soldiers is one of the worst violations of children’s rights. But even today, children are still being abused as soldiers in many parts of the world. They are part of rebel groups but also fighting on the side of government troops. Because of their emotional and social dependency and vulnerability, children are especially at risk to be forced into combat. They can easily be manipulated and ensnared into violent actions which often enough they are too young to understand or to refuse to engage in. Even technical progress has contributed to allow children to be used as soldiers: automatic weapons are easy to handle and foolproof to kill with. Child soldiers are not just victims but perpetrators. They must cope not only with crimes committed against them but also by them.

If, as is often the case, children are abducted as early as eight or nine years of age and are then forced to fight as soldiers for a period of seven or eight years, then the consequences are devastating: some children are heavily traumatized through the violence committed against them or committed by them, and suffer from posttraumatic stress disorders which often haunts them all through life. Others are less traumatized but bear signs of brutalization, callousness and sometimes uninhibited aggression. Girls are often doubly traumatized as they are forced by their commanders into serving as sex slaves in addition to being house girls. But even they must often carry guns and go to the front into dangerous combat, killing people either with a machete or a Kalashnikov.

Here you’ll find further information and background material on the topic of “Child Soldiers”:

Coalitions to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
Child Soldiers Global Report 2008