¶ … UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was written to address the issue of using children in armed conflict. Two influences are identified -- state crisis and local conditions. When it comes to preventing the conscription of children into armed forces, state crisis can be difficult to prevent, but local conditions are something that can be addressed (De Berry, 2001). The Convention was written to highlight the opinion that children in armed combat is a form of child abuse, and that this view is widely held across nations (De Silva, Hobbs & Hanks, 2001). The formalization of this view by the United Nations serves to put pressure on nations to remove children from their own armed forces and to seek to address some of the underlying issue that lead to children being conscripted into armed conflict in the first place.
Children suffer immensely from being used as soldiers. Studies have shown that children who engage in armed conflict face "seriously disrupted" moral development (Boyden, 2003), and very high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (Bayer, Klasen & Adam, 2007). As such, this paper will focus on the issue of child soldiers in three countries: Yemen, Myanmar and Colombia. The paper will examine the degree to which children are engaged in armed conflict in these three nations and what is being done to remedy this situation.
Yemen
Yemen ranks high on the failed state index at #6, worse than Afghanistan, meaning that the central government has only limited control over its territory (FFP, 2013). Yemen is subject to sporadic local insurrections, and is known as a hotbed for terrorist groups, in particular because of the lack of central government control. This has led to a high rate of child soldiering. According to the Department of Labor (2012), Yemeni children have been conscripted into both central government forces and rebel groups. Surveys found children serving in " the ranks of the Central Security Forces, the Republican Guard, and the First Armored Division" (DOL, 2012). Tribal and rebel groups also frequently recruit children. This issue is exacerbated by a very high levels of poverty, minimal access to education, ever-present conflicts over water access and lack of opportunity for children in the country. Human Rights Watch noted that the government frequently recruited children as soldiers even in the capital. HRW also notes that many such child soldiers are subsequently recruited by rebel groups, leading to a military career and effectively ending any hope at a normal childhood (HRW, 2011).
Yemen is a challenging country with respect to the issue of child soldiers. The central government is in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by recruiting soldiers as young as eight years old into the military, but there appears to be a little traction with respect to this issue. It can be difficult at times to confirm the age of someone serving in the armed forces because there is a low rate of birth registration, but at the same time it is quite clear that many children are serving in Yemeni armed forces groups.
Human Rights Watch has sought the United States and other Western nations to address this issue. The U.S. has granted an exception to prohibition on military aid to countries using child soldiers to Yemen. This policy serves to help Yemen with its conflict with al-Qaeda forces operating in the country, so there is strong national interest on the part of the U.S. To continue to fund the Yemeni military, but this funding places the U.S. At ethical risk, and provides no real incentive for Yemen to end this practice of recruiting children (HRW, 2011).
At this point, however, there has not been much progress in Yemen. The rebel groups are all but impossible to control, but progress with the Yemeni government has been frustratingly slow for activist groups like HRW. At this point, the biggest thing that the Yemeni government can do is address its own use of children in the military and other armed groups. The government needs to adopt a policy to eliminate the use of children in these groups as a first step. Outside groups like the United States should tie their military aid to Yemen to policies with respect to child soldiers in order to motivate the Yemeni government to act. Furthermore, there needs to be a better system for issuing birth certificates, because with the current system it is almost impossible to verify age. Given high levels of unemployment and chronic lack of opportunities for youth, young boys might feel incentivized to join the military as a means of providing opportunity...
" (Nolan, 2013) There is a critical need for the country's power grid to be upgraded by the power and energy sector since these upgrades would serve to assist the government in its development of a national energy policy and the financial services and ICT industries could help support small business development through the improvement of access to communications and financial services that are affordable. Summary and Conclusion The country of Myanmar
For example, in 2006 Myanmar was removed from an international list of states that supported money laundering, after it took steps to crack down on banks that were engaged in the practice (Myanmar removed from, 2006). The Financial Action Task Force praised Myanmar for its aggressive efforts to close rogue banks and prosecute their operators (Myanmar removed from, 2006). In addition, Myanmar has taken successful steps to curb opium cultivation within
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