Child Soldiers In Uganda Research Paper

Stolen Childhood of Ugandan Children.
If 1,500 kids in Canada are taken every year, it would be all over the news. But that’s not the case in Uganda. For over the past 20 years 30,000 boys and girls have been abducted and used as child soldiers by a rebel group called the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda ("Military use of children - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia", n.d.). Child soldiers are used as porters, slaves, fighters and worse for sexual purposes. Why is it that if children in Uganda are abducted it can go on for over 20 years but if it 's in Canada it is more likely to be immediately covered by the news ?
Uganda is located in Sub Saharan Africa. It has a population of 34.75 million people ("Uganda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia",
It is estimated that a third of all child soldiers are girls ("Facts About Child Soldiers | Human Rights Watch", 2008). They are often used as 'wives ' (i.e. sex slaves) of the male combatants. The use of child soldiers is prohibited under many International laws such as International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law, and International Humanitarian Law ("Child Soldiers International - International Standards", n.d.). Although these laws clearly state that the use of child soldiers is illegal, it hasn’t stopped the rebels and even some governments from using child soldiers. The use of child soldiers predominantly strikes Sub-Saharan Africa as well as parts of Asia and South America. “Today, there are more than 250,000 children who have been recruited to participate in armed conflicts worldwide” ("The issue - The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative", n.d.). Why? because children are easier to condition and brainwash. They don 't eat much food, don 't need paying much and have an underdeveloped sense of danger so they are easier to send into the line of fire. As part of their recruitment, children are sometimes forced to commit atrocities to a family member - thus breaking
This is unacceptable. Every child in the world should live in safety and protection from being harmed in any way. Every child should have a childhood not a nightmare that would follow them forever. I can’t even begin to imagine the things they have or had to in order to survive. It can range from killing innocent people to killing your very own family. What kind of person would use children to kill for them? They’re just cowards hiding behind children controlling them with fear. The use of child soldiers shouldn 't have started in the first place; some words just don 't belong together. But what’s done is done. Now it’s our responsibility to put a stop on the use of child soldiers. Canada should use it’s media to inform both the people in Canada and other people around the world about the LRA. With Canada’s and other countries resources, we can help the Ugandan government get rid of the Lords Resistance Army and step by step eliminate the use of child