Committee Topic: Child Soldiers
Country Name: Republic of Iraq
A. Defined by the United Nations, a child soldier is someone under 18 years old who is or was in a government or non-governmental army, and jobs include fighting, cooking, and being a sexual slave. Reasons a child becomes a soldier are that he or she are in need of food or medical supplies, want to avenge the death of his or her family members, and sometimes to have a false sense of protection (9). Some children are forced to join through kidnapping. It is legal to recruit children over the age of 15 but must be over 18 to be in acts of hostilities. There is an estimated 300,000 child soldiers spread over 50 countries (6). Furthermore, child soldiers have always been in world history events such as the American Civil War and World War II, …show more content…
Children below the age of 18 may not be recruited or be in direct dispute under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court established having soldiers under the age of 15 a war crime. World Health Organization (WHO) grouped former child soldiers together so that the children can listen and help each other out in a rehabilitation center in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) (10). Furthermore, Children and Armed Conflicts (CAAC) views child soldiers as one of the six “Grave Violations” (3). “Children, Not Soldiers”, a campaign, was created by CAAC with a goal to end the use of child soldiers by 2016. International Labor Organization (ILO) defines child soldiers as one of the worst types of child labor and created the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC), which believes that finding jobs for children of working age will help add employment and benefit the children. Protection, health care, and support is given by NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) to children after escaping or being