RUNNING HEAD: CHILD SOLDIERS

Child Soldiers
Cevriye Hurd-Korkmaz
University of California, Santa Cruz
Peace Psychology, Winter ‘18

OVERVIEW:
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When you hear the word “soldier”, you think of the U.S. army theme song, some patriotic

pans of jets flying through the skies, the camouflage uniforms that bring on an honorable, tough

identity, and the smiles on the faces of their loved ones when they return home from the war.

It is difficult to even call a child soldier a soldier because of the extent of the tasks in which the

males and females under the age of 18--sometimes as young as 4--have to play a role within.

There is no honor, no glorification, no smiling faces and arms wide open to greet these soldiers

when they finally are able to come back home. Many returning, especially the women, are

ostracized by their friends and family post abduction/recruitment. The stereotyping of child

soldiers undermines the importance of the fact that children are being brainwashed, manipulated,

tortured, and sexually assaulted during their training to be a part of a war that began before they

were born (Molyneux, 2018). Children are being used in traumatic ways that are being hidden

from public eye as if this heinous abuse is not happening--as if child soldiering is nothing more

than a part of history. Children are being used for a variety of tasks within armed state and non-

state groups to this current day. Although there is progress being made, such as the uprising of

multiple child soldier help groups, organizations to bring them home, radio systems set up to

alert communities of rebel arrivals, the creation of the Child Soldier World Index, and the United

Nations becoming increasingly involved to help settle some of these situations; to this day, there

are still thousands of children male and female, being recruited into these rebel armies (Children

and Armed Conflict).

The United Nations states that as of 2017, within armed state groups in Afghanistan,

Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar,

Nigeria, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, children are being used as

active tools in combat. Non-state armed groups also recruit children in India, Pakistan,
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Israel/State of Palestine, Libya, Philippines and Thailand. Children are used for more purposes

than suicide bombing, decapitation, and going to the front line of fire; they are also used to spy

on the enemy, deliver messages, as cooks and porters, wives, and for sexual purposes. The

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in

armed conflict (OPAC), is a documentation agreement and since the adoption of OPAC – the

child soldier treaty – in 2000, 167 states have now banned the use of children in armed conflict

and at least 85 criminalise child recruitment (Child Soldiers International).

Despite the implementation of OPAC, the governments of these countries are being

sneaky about their use of child soldiers. The governments of these countries are hiding the

amounts of child soldiers that are being used, and what they are being used for. Western agencies

have also developed private military companies that no one is tracking. These companies are

then contracted out to private military contractors. These private contractors are taking former

Sierra Leone child soldiers, labeling them with physical numbers, auctioning them off to private

government agencies, and sending them out to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even after

they are able to leave the warfront, there are so many issues that confront them. These issues

include after leaving the war include not knowing any other way of life, and not having a

supportive environment around them.They are left with no other choice but to fall back into the

war--the only life they know. Due to the general vulnerability of former soldiers during this time,

they are being exploited by agencies such as AEGIS. It is important to develop prevention and

reintegration processes to help limit the amount of children fighting, and expand the amount of

children reintegrated back into everyday life (Child Soldiers Reloaded).

RECRUITMENT
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Children are recruited because of a few reasons: a child’s psychological state is seen as

malleable, which makes their minds more easily shaped and manipulated; children also have less

fear and are more willing to do more “reckless” things without questioning it; and they are

undefended and vulnerable. They are also more easily influenced and controlled since they are

dependent on protection and guidance. These children are viewed as expendable, easily

replaceable, and cheap to maintain.

There are two different types of recruitment. Forced recruitment/abduction and voluntary

recruitment. In the case of forced recruitment/abduction some of the children are recruited by a

rebel leaders who kill their parents, their siblings, their loved ones. Some force these children to

be the ones who do the killing. At other times the children are drugged during recruitment as

well as while fighting. Voluntary Recruitment occurs due to grievances, repression and

discrimination as well as poverty, lack of education, lack of employment, abuse at home or

having no home or community at all any more, seeking food, security from fighting forces, and

belongingness and these children see these rebel armies as a way to fulfill the lack of these

opportunities (Dudenhoeffer, 2016). Children’s health is affected in different ways from

recruitment to experiencing death, injuries from mine explosives, torture, rape, diseases that are

typically preventable such as measles, tetanus and diphtheria become epidemic’s in war, lack of

education, loss of parents, socio-cultural changes because of war, and psychological effects such

as PTSD, depression, anxiety, and behavior disorders(Çelik, 2017).

FEMALE SOLDIERS

With the stereotype of child soldiers there comes many issues, one being that it is almost

always assumed that a child soldier is male. This is problematic due to the fact that the UN

estimates 40% of child soldiers are females, that is 4 in every 10 child soldiers is a girl. In 2014
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276 school girls from a Nigerian town of Chibok were abducted; March 6th, 2018 110 school

girls were abducted in the northeastern town of Dapchi both by Boko Haram (CNN, 2018). Girls

are being forgotten within the child soldiering stereotype, and as a result, suffer on a greater

scale. When female child soldiers return home, they face more rejection from their community

than do males. Some girls are commonly impregnated, raped and abused, as well as are likely to

have contacted sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and genital mutilation that they

are unable to seek treatment for. The president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made babies that

were born out of war to be recognized as real human beings, being a major step towards

reintegration. Having an authority figure such as a Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becoming involved

encourages the community to be more accepting, but more needs to be done.

PREVENTION

Prevention tactics need to be able to cover voluntary recruitment as well as forced

recruitment, and be flexible enough to work for each individuals needs and their specific damage

after war. It is important to have some sort of policing within the community in order to protect

those within the community from forced recruitment. Prevention for voluntary recruitment

involves having standards for the community, such as equal opportunities to participate in sports

and recreational activities. It is essential for children to be children and manifest their growing

bodies, and develop a moral state of being by learning to exert their aggressions and newfound

emotional states into activities like physical exercise. It is also critical for there to be equal

opportunities for alternative forms of therapy such as art therapy, yoga, meditation, and other

mindfulness solutions for learning to control their state of mind and their physical state of being.

These children need to be taught how to become one with themselves and the overall life in

which they are living. But most importantly, it is crucial for there to be equal opportunities for
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education for all ages groups throughout the communities, because education provides them with

freedom and control over their own lives.

REINTEGRATION

There are children being released from child soldiering every day. Sometimes a few other

times hundreds, just recently over 300 child soldiers were released from South Sudan (The

Associated press, 2018). It is necessary for when these children do return home that they have a

community in which accepts them and helps them reintegrate back into everyday life. A way to

help the community to help the children, is by educating the community on the psychological

and physical damage these children have endured throughout their time serving. For the

community to understand the reality of what these children have gone through and understand

that these children were manipulated, brainwashed, and exploited, may allow the community to

be more open minded and helpful when it comes to reintegration (Çelik, 2017).

I believe that having therapy for each child that returns home in which an assessment test

that examines the child’s mental state of mind, and possible triggers, would be beneficial to the

reintegration process as each child is different, and each of their experiences are different,

therefore each of their rehabilitation processes will differ.

Without the acceptance of the community it is easy for a former child soldier to fall back

to war, which leads to a government battle on who has the cheapest and strongest army, and it is

interfering with the rehabilitation process of former child soldiers; these companies are taking

advantage of their psychological damage caused by child soldiering (Thomas, 2017). With

support and availability to opportunities there is a positive outcome that can be reached for the

prevention and reintegration processes. An example of a positive outcome from this war is

former child soldier Emmanuel Jal, who has taken his experiences and expresses them through
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music, as well as the creation of the organization We Want Peace. This organization seeks to

raise awareness worldwide on the fundamental principles of justice, equality and freedom for all,

through the power of music (Emmanuel Jal).

Within the reintegration processes, it is necessary that there is a heavy importance placed

on girls’ health, providing women's health care items and exams at no cost. Mama Masika, a

former child soldier, and victim of rape who had birthed two babies of her commanders that she

was married off to has created a community for victims to be safe, work, and have that

supportive environment. The one thing Mama Masika placed emphasis on in her VICE news

interview is “we need the president to assure Congolese women of their right to live with human

rights (VICELAND, 2016)”. Therefore a key element in order to ensure effectiveness to creating

an accepting and supportive environment, is by having authority figures participating in the

prevention and reintegration processes. By having authority figures playing a role, the

community will learn to build trust, and move forward to the needed environment for a former

child soldier to thrive.

CONCLUSION

Child soldiers are being used and reused around the world because the rebel war has

made them learn to listen, to be disciplined, and causes them to be rejected by their communities

leaving them with no home, no income, no safety, no security looking for it elsewhere. This is

why it is so important to have a solid reintegration process put in place for when these children

return home so they can not be manipulated and taken advantage of. In the end these children are

not child soldiers, they are child slaves. Another perspective I took is that although it may appear

child soldiering is only really taking place across the oceans and not in western territories, the

same style of forced and voluntary recruitment take place for gangs all over america. In my eyes,
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gang affiliation is the westernized version of child soldiering/slavery, and therefore there should

be an equal amount of importance placed on the implementation of helping gang members be

placed on child soldiering. It is time to educate and not fall prey to stereotyping. It is time to take

steps towards peace for children in war zones around the world.

Resources
The Associated Press. (2018, February 7). More Than 300 Child Soldiers Freed in South Sudan.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/world/africa/south-sudan-child-
soldiers.html

Çelik, Nurcan & Özpınar, Saliha. (2017, December). Children and Health Effects of War Being a
War Child. Cumhuriyet Medical Journal, Volume. 39 (Issue 4), pp.639-643. 5 Pages.

Children and Armed Conflict. Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in

Armed Conflict. Retrieved from https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/mandate/opac/.
Child Recruitment and Use. Retrieved from https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/
effects-of-conflict/six-grave-violations/child-soldiers/

Child Soldiers International. Where are Child Soldiers? Retrieved from https://www.child-
soldiers.org/ Where-are-there-child-soldiers. Child Soldiers World Index Reveals
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Shocking Scale of Child Recruitment Around the World https://www.child-soldiers.org

/news/child-soldiers-world-index-reveals-shocking-scale-of-child-recruitment-around-
the-world.

CNN, Library. (2018, March 1). Boko Haram Fast Facts. Retrieved from
https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/09/world/boko-haram-fast-facts/index.html

Documentary and Educational Videos. Child Soldiers Reloaded [Video File]. Retrieved from
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5l9gz8

Dudenhoefer, Anne-Lynn. (2016, August 16). Understanding the Recruitment of Child Soldiers
in Africa. Retrieved from http://www.accord.org.za/conflict-trends/understanding-
recruitment- child-soldiers-africa/

Emmanuel Jal. We Want peace. Retrieved from https://www.wewantpeace.org/

Molyneux, T. (2018, February 28). It is time to end the child soldier stereotype. Retrieved March
05, 2018, from http://www.irinnews.org/opinion/2018/02/09/child-soldier-stereotype-
time -rehabiltation-conflict?utm_source=IRIN - the inside story on emergencies&utm_
campaign=b43870aded-
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b43870aded-15666597

Thomas, Adbul. (2017, May 4). Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers used as cheap labour for
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Retrieved from http://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.
com/sierra-leones-former-child-soldiers-used-as-cheap-labour-for-operations-in-iraq-and-
afghanistan/

UNICEF. (2011, March 22). Child Recruitment by Armed Forces of Armed Groups. Retrieved
from https://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58007.html. https://en.unesco.org/

United Nations (2015, Feb 12). 4 Out of 10 Child Soldiers are Girls. Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2015/02/4-10-child-soldiers-girls/

VICELAND. (2016, May 6). WOMAN Profiles: Mama Masika (DRC: Rape as a Weapon of War
- Exclusive) [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoCmq602
NBs

Wbur. (2018, March 06). Boko Haram Accused of Another Mass Kidnapping in Nigeria.
Retrieved from http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/03/06/boko-haram-nigeria-
kidnapping
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