Childrens Roles as Child Soldiers - Case Study Example

Children’s Roles as Child Soldiers Institute Children’s Roles as Child Soldiers Introduction Childhoods happen in the context. Children’s and young people’s lives are often discussed in such abstract terms that take for granted the spaces, places, objects and practices that make up the everyday world of the child. Principally, this treatise will focus on the roles of children as child soldiers in Somalia pinpointing relevant elements in anthropology and psychology disciplines1. The paper seeks focus on the findings of anthropologist Whiting, Franz Boas and psychologist Angela Veale so as to provide an enhanced understanding as to why children in Somalia take up the roles of being soldiers and participate in armed conflicts. Who is a child soldier? At first blush, the concept of the child soldier seems an unnatural conflation of two contradictory and incompatible terms. The first, child, typically refers to a young person between infancy and youth and connotes immaturity, simplicity, and the absence of full physical, mental, and emotional development. The second, soldier, refers to men and women who are skilled warriors. However, where do childhood, youth, adolescence, and adulthood begin and end? For contemporary humanitarian groups that advocate an international ban on child soldiers and view child soldiers as a modem day aberration, the answer is clear and simple: childhood begins at birth and ends at age eighteen. This view, known as the Straight 18 position, defines a child soldier as anyone who is 18 years and below, recruited or used by the army or armed group. However, it is not clear that all persons under age eighteen are or even should be deemed children. The question, who is a child? is important because of the indisputable fact that very young people have always been on or near the field of battle. Despite these concerns, the term child soldier refer to anyone below 18 years of age. The heuristic use of the Straight 18 position does not mean that it relates to the idea of who is a child. However, it makes little scientific or common sense to assert that every seventeen-year-old soldier or bride in every society on the planet is a child. Therefore, it is merely used to highlight the difficulties of adopting this perspective. Child Soldier Roles Inside armed groups, child soldiers perform various roles. Depending on the setting, child soldiers may serve as sentries, bodyguards, porters, domestic laborers, medics, guards, sex slaves, minesweepers, or recruiters. Roles may vary significantly by age and gender. For example, smaller, younger children often serve as spies. Girl soldiers perform the same wide variety of roles performed by boy soldiers. In African countries, commanders frequently seek girls because of their impressive capacities for portaging heavy loads. Girl soldiers also are frequently sought for purposes of sexual exploitation, as are boys in some contexts. The remarkable diversity of childrens roles in armed groups cautions against the tendency to equate child soldiers with child combatants2. Prevalence Hard data on child soldiers are difficult to obtain. Many commanders who exploit children threaten whistleblowers and cloak their actions behind lines of combat where international observers cannot enter safely. Also, the mass displacements and turmoil caused by armed conflict make it very difficult to register people and to count accurately. Even if one gained access and could count accurately, doing so might threaten children’s best interests. To identify children as former or current child soldiers can place them at risk, since former commanders may re-recruit the children, or local people may retaliate against them for wrongs they had presumably committed3. Children may wish not to be identified or labeled. Following a ceasefire and their return home, for example, former child soldiers may find it damaging to be singled out or to be called a “child soldier." This label simultaneously awakens painful memories, risks stigmatization, and reflects only one small dimension of their life experience. Therefore, it crucial for theorist researcher, peacekeepers, and whistleblowers to handle this matter delicately. Critical Analysis The Whiting’s Theory It is evidential that the role of children as child soldiers in Somalia has not only impacted their lives but has also alienated them from their innocence. The risks and experiences that they have been exposed to have caused irreversible defects in their growth process. Anthropologist Franz Boas, suggests that systematic relationships among various aspects of a child’s environmental setting and culture and childrearing patterns were related to customs, beliefs, and values of the culture as a whole4. The Whiting model for psychological research, in contrast, proposed a set of relationships between parts of the culture that were designated as "antecedents" and parts that were seen as "consequents." With childrearing and the development of personality as the crucial connecting links. In a recent form, this theory postulates that: 1. Features in the history of any society and in the cultural environment in which it is located influence 2. The customary methods by which children are cared for in that society, which have 3. Enduring psychological and physiological effects on the child of that society, which are manifested in 4. The cultural projective expressive systems of the society and the physiques of its members The Whiting model represented a new synthesis of anthropological and psychological theory. From anthropology came the functionalist proposition that different cultural domains were contingent on each other, rather than simply coexisting as accidents of history. From psychological theory came two central ideas that were widely accepted in the popular mind as well as among formal theorists. First was the concept of personality, which is the enduring dispositions to respond in certain ways under a variety of conditions. Second was the hypothesized primacy of early experience in establishing these dispositions. The theoretical relationships among culture, early experience, and personality were thus established, with the result that understanding the environments of infancy and early childhood took on great importance in psychological anthropology. Somalia has seen the largest use of child soldiers in the sub-Saharan region, with approximately 100,000 children serving on both sides of the 20 years of civil war. Since 1991, the Islamic government in the north has conscripted boys as young as twelve. The rebels take advantage of the street children in the name of providing food to them as well as taking them in and recruiting them as soldiers provide. Disturbingly, one report found that a huge percentage of the school population in Wahda province in Somalia had been recruited into Somali army or pro-government militias, the youngest being nine years old. Looking at this fact, it is inevitable for one to coerce Whiting’s theory and the context depicted in Somalia. Firstly, the history of the Somali community is known to be at war ever since the 80s and 90s. A child will find itself born into this war-torn environment and has to adapt to it5. Secondly, the customary laws that the child is brought into is Islam. Some of the extremists believe killing someone in the name of Allah is acceptable in some communities. Thirdly, growing up in this society alone exposes that particular child to Psychological trauma. For instance, because of the constant war, a child may lose a parent or a loved one and that leaves a permanent scar for vengeance. Finally, the setting in which that particular child may end up in matters. The Schema theory Even though child soldiering is a profound human rights issue, it is an equally profound peace issue. Local tyrants in Mogadishu launched a takeover of Somali Government using a scantly trained group consisting mostly of child soldiers. No society can achieve peace by militarizing its young people. When children are engaged as soldiers, spend their formative years immersed in systems of violence, and construct their values and identity guided by military groups, they become vehicles of violence rather than citizens who can build peace. Denied their rights to education and protection, child soldiers often become a means of continuing protracted armed struggles and cycles of violence. Children are usually the main combatants and child recruitment is the chief means of enabling fighting. Even after the war has ended, child soldiers who see no future will eventually cross borders and become soldiers in other countries. Meanwhile, the development of schema theory in cognitive anthropology provides another conceptual tool for comprehending childhood experience and its impact in these environments6. A schema is a mental representation or image of experience in a given environment that becomes established in memory. It can be verbal or pictorial, emotional as well as cognitive, an action sequence or a story. It is not simply a habit or a fixed concept and is responsive to features of the experience like repetition and emotional arousal; It affects one`s expectancies in a particular setting or one resembling the original. Therefore, children who grow up in war zones might not see any positive place in the society. The schema theory becomes evidential since they see violence as an acceptable way to replace the existing social order with one offering social justice and positive economic opportunities. Also by joining armed groups, children may obtain respect or a sense of family, and they might gain access to some benefits that are inaccessible to them in civilian life, like protection, food, medical care, or training. Soldiering is often attractive to children because it provides meaning, identity, and options that civilian life does not afford. Child soldiers perform many roles including fighting in direct combat, setting explosives, acting as spies, carrying food and other equipment, cooking, performing domestic labor, and being used for sexual exploitation. Not all children perform the same roles or have the same experiences; for example, 48% to 87% of children were involved in direct combat7. Girls may not have to fight on the front lines, although they often do, as in the armed conflicts in Liberia and Uganda. Females forced into armed groups perform the same roles as males. In addition to traditional female gender-role activities, such as food preparation, producing and raising children and cleaning. Although girl soldiers nearly always experience rape or are expected to provide sexual services, girls in some parts of Somalia may not have been subjected to these expectations due to the Islamic prohibitions. Angela Veale, a Psychologist, poses several questions with regards to criminal accountability of children such as: "What are the appropriate responses to children and young persons who have perpetrated violence and committed gross human rights violations in the context of armed conflict?”, and "What is the anthropological or psychological evidence regarding children’s roles in the participation of conflict?” Today children`s power and agency is being stressed by current social research and child psychology, and there is a broad theoretical push against theorizing ‘incompetent children’. She means that if a child in the armed group is acting with the lack of rational thinking skills, and demonstrating an inability to consent, on the basis of them being minors, then it is possible to claim that child perpetrators should not be held accountable for their actions under any circumstance. Conclusion The United Nations should encourage the demobilization of child soldiers in the midst of armed conflicts, even where there is no imminent peace. The challenge in such situations, in addition to the usual problems of rehabilitation, is to prevent re-recruitment. One method that the Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict has to advocate is the development of “neighborhood initiatives,” where countries in the same sub-region collaborate to address issues of child soldiering and protection. Such initiatives have been established in West Africa and Liberia. In some African regions, the World Bank and donor countries should agree to provide financial support to support demobilization projects. UNICEF has often been involved in areas on which the Special Representative has focused. In addition to its practical involvement in programs for the rehabilitation of child soldiers, UNICEF should develop a document for the Security Council. In addition, Peace and Security Agenda for Children, which as one of its main objectives, should include an end to the exploitation of the child8. The importance of integrating the perspective of children is increasingly being recognized, meaning that children have a right to express their views. They should also participate in decisions affecting them, a right which is firmly established in Article 12 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. c and others have pointed out the essence of deviating away from the typical approach which was also reflected in international law. The law stipulated that children were treated as objects and not subjects of rights, and as helpless victims of their circumstances with no hope for their future. They have called attention to the importance of recognizing that children are also resilient and enormously resourceful in conflict situations, and that there is a need to consider their views. This does not refer that they are not victimized by their situation and experiences but that there is a significant difference to make between being victimized and being a victim9. Psychosocial support for former child soldiers is also a key part of post-conflict peace building since, following the signing of a ceasefire, there remain large numbers of former child soldiers who have no jobs, vocational skills, or education. Lacking support, many youth turns to crime and banditry and, in regions such as West Africa, many become mercenaries in neighboring countries. In this respect, the reintegration of former child soldiers on a national scale is a vital element in the wider task of rebuilding society for peace. Bibliography Boyden B., and Wessels R. The need for a professional ethic: International perspectives Educational and Child Psychology, 19, 7-15. 2007 print. Inda, Jeniffer (ed,). Anthropologies of Modernity: Foucault, Governmentality. 2005 Print Katz, C. Growing up Global: Economic Restructuring and Childrens Everyday Lives. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Kehily, J., and Mary, D. Understanding childhood: A Cross Disciplinary Approach. Policy Press, 2013. Larner, W. and W. Walters (ed.). Global Governmentality: Governing International Spaces, London and New York: Routledge, Life Politics. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 2004. Lunt, I. A common framework for the training of psychologists in Europe. European Psychologist, 7, l80—191. 2002 Print. Mckay, Ronald., & Mazurana, Mcwill. Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) and the Reform of the Army, AFR 45/001/2004 Michael G. Wessells. Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection. Harvard University Press, 2006. Save the Children UK. International Conference on Human Rights in London, AMR 69/010/2005 Singer, Neil. Escalating Violence in North. Child Violence in Somalia AFR 62/014/2007, 10 September 2005. Read More