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Established Goals:
This lesson presents an overview of where, why, how, and in
what conditions children are used as child soldiers. Students
will identify the physical and emotional challenges that child
soldiers face. Students will study the efforts by the international
community to eliminate children from armed conflict and strategies
they are using to integrate children back into their communities.
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National
Council for Social Studies Standards:
V. Individuals
VI. Power, authority, and governance
IX. Global Concerns
X. Civic Ideals and Practices
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Transferable
Concepts/Links:
Conflict, Revolution, Power, Civil War, NGOs (non-governmental
organizations), Poverty, Technology, Socialization, Recruitment,
Exploitation, Atrocities, Civil society, International cooperation,
collaboration
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Course
Connections:
American History,
World History,
Government,
Global Studies,
Current Events
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Understandings:
Children are used in armed conflict throughout the world.
Children become involved in armed conflict when there
isn't a governmental infrastructure in place to protect
them.
Children become involved in armed conflict because they
are physically and mentally easy to control.
The long term effects of children in armed conflict
have lasting implications on the individuals, the society,
and the world at large.
Child Soldiers are both victims and victimizers.
International institutions and documents are in place
to protect children's rights.
International agencies and grassroots organizations
are working to combat the use of child soldiers among
other issues.
Children in armed conflict want help. |
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Essential
Questions:
What are the moral issues behind the use of children
in armed conflict?
Describe how and where child soldiers are used.
Identify the reasons for using children in armed conflict.
How does society suffer when children are used in armed
conflict?
What is the role of international documents and protocols
and what do they say about the use of children in armed
conflict? |
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Students
will know:
Human Rights vocabulary terms.
What is being done about this global issue?
International documents and the issues that they address.
The names of NGOs, civil society and international organizations
that are aiding children in armed conflict. |
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Students
will be able to:
Classify where, when, why, how, and in what conditions
child soldiers are used.
Chart and map data about child soldiers.
Use the essential information to get involved in combating
the issue.
Assess the scope of the use of child soldiers throughout
the world today.
Form an opinion about whether child soldiers are victims
or victimizers. |
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Equipment and Materials:
Computer, Television & Atlas.
Handout #1 Mapping
child soldiers
Handout #2 Where
child soldiers are being used
Handout #3 Stories
of child soldiers
Handout #4 Convention
on the Rights of the Child
Note: To open handouts or save them to your PC, click on
the link. Or right click on links and select "Save Target
As" option. |
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Activity 1:
- Give students the definition of a child soldier
According to UNICEF:
"A 'child soldier' is defined as any child - boy or girl
- under 18 years of age, who is part of any kind of regular
or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity,
including, but not limited to: cooks, porters, messengers,
and anyone accompanying such groups other than family
members. It includes girls and boys recruited for sexual
purposes and/or forced marriage. The definition, therefore,
does not only refer to a child who is carrying, or has
carried weapons" (Cape Town Principals, 1997).
Ask students to determine what sorts of tasks child soldiers
could be required to do.
Answers should include cooking, cleaning, operating computers
and taking part in combat. Any job a child does, against
his or her will, that is affiliated with an armed militia
is considered to be a task of a child soldier.
- Hand out copies of the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child. In 1989, world leaders decided
that children under 18 years of age often need special
care that adults do not. The Convention is the first legally
binding international instrument to incorporate a full
range of human rights such as civil, cultural, economic,
political and social rights for children.
The Convention is an international document negotiated
by Member States at the United Nations. Every Member
State of the United Nations has ratified (or adopted)
the treaty except the United States and Somalia, who
have only signed it.
The Convention offers a vision of the child as an individual
and as a member of a family and community, with rights
and responsibilities appropriate to his or her age and
stage of development. By recognizing children's rights
in this way, the Convention firmly sets the focus on
the whole child.
Madeline Albright, the United States ambassador to
the United Nations, signed the Convention in 1995. However,
the United States Constitution requires that such documents
receive a two-thirds approval by the Senate to be adopted.
There are some articles in the Convention that the US
Senate has yet to come to an agreement on.
Ask Students:
What is the difference between ratifying and signing
a treaty?
Why do you think the United States has not adopted the
Convention?
Answers can include:
a. Signing does not create a binding legal obligation
but does demonstrate the State's intent to examine the
treaty domestically and consider ratifying it. Ratification
signifies an agreement by the state to be legally bound
by the terms of the treaty.
b. Some US legislators feel that the provisions
or certain articles of the Convention could interfere
with the role of parents in their children's lives.
The Convention is the most widely supported international
treaty because nations, organizations and individuals
realize that the future of humanity is in the hands
of our children.
Share these facts with your students:
- 40 million children live on the streets of the
world's cities
- The average age of the homeless in the US is 9
years
- A gun takes the life of a child every 2 hours in
the US
- In Liberia, children made up a quarter of all civil
war combatants
- Children are tortured by authorities in 11 countries
- More than a million children work in the Asian
sex trade
- 4,000 children in the USA were murdered by their
parents in 1998
- 2 million girls between 4 and 12 years undergo
genital mutilation every year
Source:
Children's rights across the world (BOES)
Ask students to identify and highlight which Articles
of the Convention are being violated when children are
used in armed conflict.
Answers are:
Articles 6, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36,
37 and 38.
Ask students to rephrase the Articles 6, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34,
35, 36, 37, 38 for an in class discussion.
Note to teacher: Students should hold onto their
copies of the Convention for further use during other
"What's Going On?" lesson plans. It is recommended
that you have students use the following initials next
to each article that is violated for each topic they learn
about from the "What's Going On?" series. [Child
Soldiers (CS), HIV/AIDS (AIDS), Refugees (RF), Child Labor
(CL), Landmines (LM), Girl's Education (GED), Indigenous
People (IP), Northern Ireland (NI), Poverty in America
(PA), Street Children (SC).
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Activity 2:
- Introduce these additional facts in a handout or on
a transparency
- Child Soldiers are being used in over 36 countries
worldwide.
- Today, there are approximately 300,000 child soldiers
fighting in armed conflict.
- Child soldiers are under the age of 18.
- Children are used as soldiers because they are
easily manipulated and are too young to understand
their actions.
- Child soldiers use AK-47s, M-16s and grenades because
they are easy to use.
Orphans and refugees sometimes see their only hope
for survival is by joining a militia.
- Child soldiers are used to clear landmines and
as human shields.
Child soldiers are often given drugs to help them
cope with their emotions making it easier for them
to kill.
- Girl soldiers are often used as domestic sex slaves.
- Child soldiers carry supplies and act as messengers,
cooks and lookouts.
- Child soldiers are sometimes forced to commit atrocities
against their own families and villages.
- Many child soldiers are not welcome back home after
a conflict ends because of cultural superstition.
- Children are the victims of conflict after witnessing
or participating in murder and rape, becoming disabled,
homeless or psychologically traumatized.
- Hand out copies of the blank World
Map and the Where
Child Soldiers are Being Used Graph. Have students
color in parts of the world that use children in armed
forces.
- Discuss: What does the map show us about the extent
to which children are used in combat world wide? Why are
child soldiers found in some countries and not others?
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Activity 3:
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- Screen the documentary 'What's Going On?,' Sierra
Leone.
- What rights were violated in the cases of Abu,
Fatmata and Swankay?
- Ask students to discuss their emotional responses
to the documentary.
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Activity 4:
- Ask students what actions they think the rest of the
world can do to eliminate child soldiers.
Who is responsible for taking action against these atrocities?
- There are many NGOs and members of civil society who
work extremely hard to eradicate child soldiers.
- Office of the Special Representative of the United
Nations Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict
(UNSGCAC) works to raise awareness and promote the collection
of information about the plight of children affected
by conflict.
- UNICEF is an international agency of the United Nations
that works to implement the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. UNICEF works with families and communities
to provide psychosocial support, education, vocational
training for children involved in armed conflict.
(See below for more organizations)
- Discuss ways that students can get involved in the fight
against children in armed conflict.
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Books
Abrams, I. (2001). The Novel Peace Prize Laureates: An
Illustrated Biographical History (1901-2001). Science
History Publications, ISBN 0881353884
Boutwell, J. & Klare, M. (2000). "A Scourge of Small Arms."
Scientific American, June 2000 48-54
Keene, A. (1998). Peacemakers: Winners of the Nobel Peace
Prize. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195103165
Singer, P.W. (2005) Children at War. New York: Pantheon Books
Reports
Coalition to stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers.1379
Report (CSC Report). Coalition to Stop the Use of Child
Soldiers, 2002. http://www.child-soldiers.org.
This report evaluates the United Nations Security Resolution
(UNSC) which was adopted to tackle the international problem
of recruitment and use if child soldiers.
Graca, M. (1996). "Children at Both End of the Gun." In
Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. United Nations/UNICEF
http://unicef.org/graca
Documents
Film
J. Russell, B. Bailey, L. Poole. (2004). Invisible Children:
Discover the Unseen. Documentary film about child soldiers
and children involved in armed conflict in Uganda. http://www.invisiblechildren.com
($29.95 for two DVDs)
Radio Addresses
Soldier Boy, Denmark Radio (TV), the Danish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs' agency for international development
and co-operation (DANIDA) and UNICEF. Videocassette available
at http://www.unicef.org/broadcast/vidcat.htm
Articles
Werner, W. (1999). Teaching for Hope. The Canadian Anthology
of Social Studies. Pacific Educational Press, Vancouver,
CA p. 249-253
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