by Bruno Abarca (Spain) Translations: Español.
“They give you a gun and you have to kill the best friend you have. They do it to see if they can trust you. If you don’t kill him, your friend will be ordered to kill you. I had to do it because otherwise I would have been killed. That’s why I got out. I couldn’t stand any longer.” 17-year-old boy, joined paramilitary group in Colombia aged 7. Colombia. (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2002)
According to the UNICEF Cape Town Principles (1997), ‘child soldier’ makes not only reference to a child who is carrying arms, but to “any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed groups in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers and anyone accompanying such groups, other than family members. The definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced marriage.”
Their health problems are not limited to injuries, as they may face violence, malnutrition, poor health care, physical abuse, sexual exploitation, and deprivation.
The Universal Children's Day (November 20) is approaching. Do we listen to their voices?
2 comments:
Child soldiers are one of the worst aberrations ever! I had the opportunity to assist to a lecture given by a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. I still can't explain how I felt, listening to his horrible storry. And above all the atrocities they go through, there is still the post-war period for those who survive. PTSD, drug abuse, personality disorders, orphan state, poverty, illiteracy, STDs are part of their burden. How, as medical students and doctors, can we help them? I'm not quite sure of the answer... But as the children themselves ask us, maybe we could start by raising awareness around us and go on with the local and global fightings for HR. What do you think?
Camille Paquette
NORP
IFMSA-Québec
Public health resident
Hey there
my name is Nazlee, in fourteen and im absolutely appauled at the amount of child soldiers increasing over the years.
im currently working on a ten minute speech about why and how to stop the use of child soldiers, for a school assignment
and i just wanted to say, there should be a far worse punishment for those commanders/soldiers/people who force the children to participate in the military activities, because really they are the ones breaking the laws of human rights by intentionally hurting a child, right?
anyways, this is a really good site so thanks
id love for someone to reply so yeah, hit us back
Nazlee.
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