https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47 CFR article en-us 2016-11-16 16:52:38 UTC 2025-10-01 12:56:53 UTC hello@padlet.com amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138157387 The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) defines child soldiers as "any child—boy or girl—under eighteen years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity." ]]> 2016-11-16 16:54:14 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138157387 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138157600 2016-11-16 16:54:38 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138157600 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138157727 2016-11-16 16:54:51 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138157727 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138409961 About 300,000 children are believed to be involved in thirty conflicts worldwide. Nearly half a million children serve in armies not currently at war, making it that 40 percent of the world's armed forces have children in their ranks.]]> 2016-11-17 14:31:05 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138409961 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138427745 Children are very effective in wars because they can be easily manipulated, confusing to the opponent in battle, and serve as suicide bombers, minesweepers, messengers, and bomb-markers. ]]> 2016-11-17 15:07:19 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138427745 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138429236  Almost 30 percent of armed forces using children include girls. Other than fighting, girls are often sexual abused, and sometimes taken as mistresses by army leaders. Human Rights Watch reports having interviewed girls who were impregnated by their commanders, then forced into combat with their babies strapped to their backs."


]]> 2016-11-17 15:10:37 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138429236 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138430529 "The majority of child soldiers volunteer, though they often do so because it is their best option for survival."]]> 2016-11-17 15:13:26 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138430529 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138432090 Some children enlist for revenge on those who have abused or murdered their family.]]> 2016-11-17 15:17:10 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138432090 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138432406 Along with weapons becoming more lethal, they have become lighter, much smaller, and easy to use, such that a ten-year-old can learn to adequately fire an AK-47 in half an hour. ]]> 2016-11-17 15:17:48 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138432406 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138433978 A fourteen-year-old sniper in Afghanistan shot the first U.S. soldier killed in the war on terrorism and in 2003, more than six Afghan boys aged thirteen to sixteen were captured by the U.S. and sent to a particular facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.]]> 2016-11-17 15:21:09 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138433978 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138461555 Children often witness and commit outrageous barbarity including amputations and beheadings, rape, and burning people alive. Those that survive their experience are often left with severe mental health problems.]]> 2016-11-17 16:20:47 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138461555 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138466030 Children serve in the ranks of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and attack, kill, and rape civillians. The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently issued warrants for the arrest of Ugandan LRA leaders, but the ICC has no police force to arrest these them and they remain free.]]> 2016-11-17 16:30:01 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138466030 amhenning18 https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138471517 An August 2003 peace agreement ended the fourteen-year civil war in Liberia that used many child soldiers in both government and opposition forces, causing around 21,000 children needing to be restored into Liberian society after being granted freedom. ]]> 2016-11-17 16:41:46 UTC https://padlet.com/amhenning18/bsbwju3w3n47/wish/138471517