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Child Soldier: Trained to Kill
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IS IT JUST TO HANG A CHILD SOLDIER? I am particularly interested in the issues of Child combatants and the International Court of Justice, which is facing a universal Human Dilemma in response to the conscription of children into national armed forces and revolunary gorrilla groups to fight in war. Most of warfare nowadays is characterized by childsoldiers. For instance, the wars in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine etc. Some of these children are conscripted and trained to kill during wars. After that, the children are supposed to appear before the United Nations' War Crime Tribunal for charges of Human Right violations or war crimes. My main own dilemma here is, how can anyone determine justice in a situation wherein the killer was the primal victim of war crimes or of illegal conscription, and eventually becomes a heartless brute, with an enormous record of human rights violations even when he had the chances to surrender? In pragmatic existentialism, the individual is always exposed to choices and he/she must be responsible for their actions and the consequences that folllow. This is called the "freedom of choice and responsibility." Using the existentialist ideology, one could say that the choices of the the child soldier were either to deny the weapons and be killed or live to become a killer. What the class should be concerned about is the fact that justice in the case of a child soldier is not determined according to the guilt of his conscriptor. The child soldier is judged separately for the crime he commited, and his conscriptor is judged for the crimes he committed against him(child soldier) On the other hand, there are other people who were conscripted and are now responsible for their actions just because they don't fall within the United Nations age range of 0-18 for a child. Should we then decide by this principle that people are only responsible for their actions when they exceed this age limit? Or should all other conscripted people be exempted from trial? My interest in the case of the child soldier therefore, is the dilemma that it ignites in me everytime I try to state my opinion on the issue. Considering that I have a first hand experience of the horrors of a child soldier and other combatants, I sometimes think that the child soldier is innocent just because he/she is a child, but just by looking back at their actions and some of the chances they had to surrender in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea etc, I would simply blame them for the horrors they committed.
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I Acted: Was I Responsible?
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Creative Project: I am currently taking two approaches to this dilemma. Both approaches are creative and gearing towards the presentation of the dilemma. I am working on a picture drama in the form of a power point presentation of the dilemmas involved in the issue of the child soldier. This presentation will starts with the conscription of the child soldier and another grown up victim under similar circumstances. The child soldier would also be shown in action, leading to the court of justice. From this point, I will present all possible outcomes of the judgement. The other plan is a musical approach in the form of a rap, wherein I express my dilemma and present hanging statements that leaves room for the interpretation of the audiencedience. My aim is to get the creative project speak for itself, and for the audience concentrate on the possible outcomes.
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Comment I have read the articles and periodicals listed below and I believe that they are all addressing my dilemma on the justice of child soldiers. Even though most of them are largely campaigning for the innocence of the child soldiers, they are only expressing what they believe should be just. The materials have also given me a wider understanding and argument about the dilemma, which actually leads to further questions and scepticism. However, since I do not expect to justify what is right or wrong, I have enjoyed acquiring knowledge from both sides. The dilemma remains, but the scope of understanding has widened. I have also talked with Mr. Musa Bainda, Coordinator of the Gila foundation in Freetown about the United Nations Special Court and the issue of child combatants. Mr. Bainda has been in Sierra Leone since the 1999 invasion and he is presently linked with a German NGO providing aid to children of Sierra Leone. Since he is concerned with trauma healing after the war, he has had a lot of contacts with the childsoldiers of Sierra Leone and Liberia, including some other NGOs who have been campaigning for the freedom of child soldiers. I believe that his experience and stories of the his interaction with these children would be a valuable resource to my project.
Childsoldiers
This site contains confessions,testimonies and stories of child soldiers mainly from Sierra Leone
O Boy Soldier
A poetic view of the child soldier as a victim
O Boy Soldier
A poetic explanation of the child soldier as a victim
Lasting Hope for Children of War
A general analysis on the issues of a child soldier
BBC: Children of Conflict
Very relevant information and recorded talks with child soldiers.
World Press Review: Interview with a former child soldier
This is an interview with a child soldier who actually escaped.
Coalition to stop the use of child soldiers
Links to related topic, International law on the rights of a child and campaigns against conscription
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HUMMMMMM: What Do You Think?
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Connection of my project to Skidmore courses HI 298 UN HI Process Product Intro: International Affairs Law and Society Courses PS 207 Intro: Child Development PH 230 001 Topics in Philosophy
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CONNECTION TO LS1 COURSE My dilemma is particularly connected to the Justice Unit of the LS1 course, but it also connects to some of the readings in the Human Identities unit. In the justice unit, my dilemma can be connected to almost all of the readings in the unit and be interpreted according to those concepts. But to look at it narrowly, we can use the Thrasymachus argument from Plato's The Republic that justice is what is in the interest of the stronger party, to determine the who is right or wrong. The stronger party in this case would be the judicial system of the International Court of Justice. On the other hand, we can use Cicero's view from On the Laws, that Justice is determined by the 'right reason' and declare our virdict. But the major question that comes to mind is, whose reason is going to determine what is just? We can also decide to combine both conclusions and state that justice is determined by the right reason of the stronger party, but would strong then mean intellectually or physically? In the unit of Human Identities, the dilemma of the child soldier reminds me of W.E.B. Du Bois' Of Our Spiritual Strivings. The case of Africans who were captured and transported as slaves to America and gained their freedom from slavery, were then racially alienated. One could easily conclude that in fact the Africans should have called for returning to Africa istead of trying to become Americans, but the fact is, I realized through the readings on the cherokee case that the whites were also immigrants. Who then determined their ownership of the land? The similarity between the child soldier and the African slave is that they were both free to choose death.
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