Relevance and Significance
According to UNICEF's research data there are thousands of children recruited into the military every year. These children are recruited all over the world. In 2022, the United Nations verified the use of 7,622 child soldiers in more than 20 countries, and it is a 21 percent increase compared to 2021. In 2024, the UN recorded 41,370 uses of children in armed conflict, which is the highest number since the Children and Armed Conflict mandate began.
In international law, recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court, and human rights law sets 18 as the minimum legal age for recruitment. Even though there is a global law prohibiting the recruitment of all children under 18, armed groups have continued to increase the recruitment and use of children in conflict. We must work to fix this problem because children in conflict are robbed of their childhood, mental health, and future, and the trauma affects entire communities and countries.
(Stimson)
7,000+ CHILDREN RECRUITED ANNUALLY • 25+ MAJOR CONFLICT SITUATIONS • 470+ MILLION CHILDREN IN NEED • 2026 REHABILITATION GOALS
SIERRA LEONE
In Ishmael Beah's story 'A Long Way Gone' the story shifts drastically between his involvement in the military and the events preceding it. At first he is like any other boy playing with his friends. Then a civil war reaches his villlage and he is forced to flee with his friends. He and his friends run from village to village facing suspision from most of the occupied villages they come across. Eventually Ishmael finds himself seeking refuge at a military base. Unfortunately this is where Ishmael's life will take a turn. It is made clear that it is either you join the military, or you die at the hands of the rebels. Ishmael reluctantly joins the military hoping for survival, but slowly Ishmael becomes more traumatized from the enviornment he is in being surrounded by abuse, violence, and drugs. Luckily he gets found by a rehabilitation center and later by his uncle, which take him in and allow him to recover (Beah). Ishmael's uncle was alive to help him reintagrate into society however many child soldiers do not have this privellage. What Ishmael's journey has showed, is how brutal the lives of child soldiers are, and exactly why we need to take action against the recuitment of child soldiers. It traumatizes them, and many have trouble reintagrating into society.
(Unicef USA)
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The brutal conflict in Sierra Leone during the 1990s created a humanitarian crisis that would forever alter the landscape of global child soldier recruitment. In 'A Long Way Gone,' Ishmael Beah provides a
heart-breaking, clinical narrative of a boy forced into the ranks of the military. His story is not just a personal account of survival, but a technical blueprint of the psychological and physical trauma inflicted on children in the name of war. We analyze these historical patterns to understand the systemic failures that continue to recruit children globally.
(123 RF)