Child Soldiers: Our Responsibility Toward Rehabilitation

The numbers are staggering. It is estimated that at least 300,000 child soldiers are fighting in conflicts around the world. While a child soldier is defined as being less than eighteen years old, many of these combatants are under the age of fifteen. In some conflicts, eight and nine year olds are brought into battle.

The personal stories of these child soldiers are horrific. Children are taken from their homes, shattering any sense of family security. They are often forced to commit atrocious human rights violations on innocent people. Some have been forced to kill their own family members or friends. This is done to ensure loyalty, cut them off from their community, or "strengthen them" as soldiers. Girls are often raped and taken as soldiers' mistresses. They are then forced into support duties, such as carrying medicine into battle, or into becoming active combatants themselves.

While many child soldiers are abducted into service, others are recruited. Children who are orphaned or separated from their families become easy prey. In 2006, an estimated 18.1 million children were living with displacement, either as refugees or as internally displaced people. Children in desperate situations may join rebel or military forces as a means of survival. Those from religiously or politically zealous families may enlist as an act of duty and still others report joining to avenge the death of loved ones.

Children are impressionable and highly adaptive. Whether they are taken or recruited as soldiers, they quickly learn that their survival requires strict obedience. Children are vulnerable to manipulation, especially those who have witnessed violence, death, and murder. They may begin to regard the other soldiers as family and their commanders as parent-figures. This is particularly true when child soldiers have been ostracized from their own families or communities.

Child soldiers are involved in combat in many countries around the world. Some governments directly recruit children. Those that do not, may still support paramilitary groups and militias who use children in combat. Areas where child soldiers have been most prevalent include: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, Myanmar, Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda.

Many countries around the world denunciate the use of child soldiers, however the practice continues. Protecting children from the atrocities

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