Dear United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF),

     For years the use of children in both conflicts between states and civil wars has been evident. Children are forced by commanders through false promises, drugs and things which you can’t even imagine, to kill innocent civilians, other children and even their own families. Universally, the use of child soldiers has been frowned upon as both unacceptable and abhorrent. Despite this, in the last ten years over two million children have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma. However, the question still remains whether or not child soldiers should be held accountable for their crimes. In other words should all child soldiers be given amnesty, no matter their war crimes?

     

Omar Khadr is a Toronto-born Canadian, captured by American soldiers after a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15 years old.

In my perspective all child soldiers should be given amnesty, no matter their crimes. Now some people might believe that not all child soldiers should be given amnesty because if there crimes. Which can be a valid point, in which there are times where these child soldiers go out of there minds and do horrible things. For example a former child soldier Omar Khadr, was accused of many crimes as a child soldier. One of them being killing high military personnel. I will admit this man has done many horrible things. But he must be given amnesty. Ever since at the age of 15 when he was put behind bars in Canada(where he was born) he has been stuck there, and the Canadians don't want to let him out any time soon. But he should be let out, immediately. Child soldiers have to go through circumstances at a young age that not most children have to go through. They are raised only knowing about war and that's it. They watch it, they participate in it, they live with it. They don't know what a normal childhood is like. So somebody like Omar Khadr might have done some unacceptable things. But he doesn't understand what an ordinary childhood is like. No matter if you're a child soldier who has killed 0 people, or has killed 40, you deserve amnesty. All this child soldiers should be given second chances in life no matter what. Because everything they have done has been not their faults, but others.

These child soldiers are forced to do whatever they are told by there leaders in war. If they don't follow the leaders commands, they have a risk of even dieing. These kids live in horrible conditions, there get abused, and many other things. They don't have a chance at another ways at life, most likely their parents, siblings, or anybody else in their family is died. You can see these leaders as slave owners, why. Well just like slave owners they force their slaves to do whatever they tell him to do, and if they don't they get punished. And just like slaves they are born thinking what is happening to them is right. Which means child soldiers and slaves didn't understand that what was happening to them was horrible. So don't blame child soldiers, blame leaders of these army's who make them grow up to these kind of people who don't understand what a childhood actually is.