This document is a writing sample from Jae Hwa Shin for an international trafficking course. It is a 25-page research paper about the use of child soldiers in modern warfare and its ethical implications. The summary analyzes the history of child soldiering, noting that traditionally wars were fought by adults, but now over 300,000 children under 18 participate in conflicts. It also outlines the strengthening of international laws around child soldiering over the past few decades, including treaties that prohibit recruitment of those under 15 and define a child as under 18.

1. JAE HWA SHIN
: 604.816.8259 : agnesjhs@gmail.com
Writing Sample for Jae Hwa Shin
The following is an excerpt from an International Trafficking in Persons course that I took to satisfy
a rigorous written skills requirement for which I received an “A.” There were some minor
grammatical corrections and some paragraphs added before submitting this final 25-page research
paper. This paper is about the use of child soldiers in modern warfare and its moral/ethical
implications for the United States military.

2. I. INTRODUCTION
“I think with sorrow of those living and growing up against a background of war, of those who
have known nothing but conflict and violence … What a terrible legacy for their future! Children
need peace; they have a right to it.”1
History confirms that wars were fought mostly by adults as part of state armies in the past.
Today, children under the age of eighteen participate in warfare.2
Clearly, it has now become a
global issue. Statistics show that about 300,000 child soldiers under the age of eighteen are involved
in armed conflict.3
Approximately twenty million child soldiers have died as a result of participation
in armed conflict.4
Over the past two decades, the international child rights movement has prompted the
development of international law, policies, and programs concerning the use of child soldiers.5
Despite the stronger laws and advocacy that have resulted in United Nation’s Security Council
resolutions, international agreements, domestic legislation, and establishment of country-specific ad
hoc tribunals, both national armies and rebel groups continue to recruit and use children in armed
conflict.6
Those using child soldiers are willing to ignore the longstanding ethical norms and will
likely be undeterred by new ones or persuaded by moral appeal.7
The international community
needs to realize that the practice of using children as soldiers is not accidental.8
This practice
reflects the use of a well-planned doctrine, resulting from conscious and deliberate decisions.9
Until
1
His Holiness PopeJohn Paul II, Address at the celebration of the World Day of Peace (Jan. 1, 1999).
2
Amnesty International, Child Soldiers: One of the Worst Abuses of Child Labor, available at
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/IOR42/001/1999/en/d53b8123-e348-11dd-a06d-790733721318/ior420011999en.html
(last visited May 3, 2010).
3
MarshaL. Hackenberg, Can the OptionalProtocol for the Convention on theRights of theChild Protect the Ugandan Child
Soldier?, 10 Ind. Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 417, 418 (2000).
4
Id.
5
Ilene Cohn, International Law Barring Child Soldiers in Combat: Problems in Enforcement and Accountability, 37 Cornell Int’l
L. J. 531 (2004).
6
Id., at 534.
7
P. W. Singer, Talk Is Cheap: Getting Serious About Preventing Child Soldiers, 37 Cornell Int’lL.J. 561, 573 (2004).
8
Id., at 574.
9
Id., at 573.

3. the international community understands the doctrine that drives the use of child soldiers, the
prohibitions against child soldering will be empty and will continue to be violated.10
To make laws is
not the same as finding ways to enforce them.11
Stronger legal standards are essential but they are
not enough to stop the practice of child soldiering.12
In order to be effective in preventing the
practice of child soldiering, the root causes of child soldiering need to be analyzed.13
Knowledge is
needed about why adults find the recruitment of children desirable and why children volunteer for
armed conflict. In understanding the causes and the resulting dynamics, guided strategies that attack
the very heart of the practice can be developed.14
II. THE BRIEF HISTORY OF CHILD SOLDIERING
War is usually reserved for adults and children are not included in this equation. This
exclusion of children from warfare is held true in almost every traditional culture. For example, in
pre-colonial African armies, the general practice was that the warriors typically joined three or four
years after puberty. In the Zulu tribe, it was not until the ages of 18 to 20 that members were eligible
for “ukubuthwa,” the drafting or enrollment into the tribal regiments.15
In the Kano region of West
Africa, only married men were conscripted, as those unmarried were considered too immature for
such an important and honored task as war.16
However, there were no cases of traditional tribes or
ancient civilizations that relied on fighting forces made up of young boys or girls.
While warfare long has been the domain of adults, there were some exceptions in military
history where children served as soldiers. The most notable instance in American history of under-
aged child soldiers was the participation by Virginia Military Institute (VMI) cadets at the Battle of
10
Id.
11
Id.
12
Jo Becker, Child Soldiers: Changing a Culture of Violence, 32 WTR Hum. Rts. 16, 17 (2005), available at
http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/winter05/childsoldiers.html (last visited May 3, 2010).
13
Singer, Talk Is Cheap, at 562.
14
Id.
15
T. W. Bennet, Using Children in Armed Conflict: A Legitimate African Tradition?, available at
http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/Issues/Texts/Soldiers002.htm (last visited May 3, 2010).
16
John N. Paden, MuslimCivic Cultures and Conflict Resolution: TheChallenge of Democratic Federalism in Nigeria, 127
(2005).

4. New Market during the Civil War. In May 1864, Union forces marched up the Shenandoah Valley,
hoping to cut the Virginian Central railroad, a key supply line. Southern General John C.
Breckinridge found himself with the only Confederate force in the area, commanding just 1,500
men.17
So he ordered the cadets from the nearby VMI military academy to join him. Two hundred
fifty seven strong (roughly 25 were 16 years or younger), they waited out most of the battle until its
final stages. Then, they overran a key Union artillery battery whereby 10 cadets were killed and 57
were wounded.18
It appeared their role was for nothing. Within the year, the Union would capture
the Shenandoah and with it the rest of the Confederacy.19
Similarly, the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) were young boys who had received quasi-military
training as part of a political program to maintain Nazi rule through indoctrination. Through most
of World War Two, the youths joined German military forces including the SS only when they
reached the age of maturity. However, when Allied forces invaded German territory in the final
months of the war, Hitler’s regime ordered these boys to fight. It was a desperate attempt to delay
the invasion until new “miracle” weapons (like the V-2 rocket and Me-262 jet fighter) could turn the
tide of war. Numerous Hitler Youth were sent out lightly armed and in small ambush squads and
killed even after the war had been decided.20
Thus, throughout the history of warfare, children were
never an integral part of any military force.
III. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Nowadays, child soldiers are protected under international human rights law, international
humanitarian law (laws of war), international criminal laws, and international labor laws.21
Until
17
Virginia Military Institute, TheBattleof New Market, Virginia. May 15, 1864, available at
http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=8157 (last visited May 3, 2010).
18
Virginia Military Institute, VMI Cadets at the Battle of New Market, May 1864, available at
http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=6063 (last visited May 3, 2010).
19
Kennedy Hickman, American Civil War: Battleof New Market, available at
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/civilwar/p/newmarket.htm (last visited May 3, 2010).
20
P. W. Singer, Children at War, 14-15 (2005).
21
Nsongurua J. Udombana, War is Not Child’s Play! International Law and theProhibition of Children’s Involvement in Armed

5. recently, the prevailing legal standard in international law, established in the 1977 Additional
Protocols of the Geneva Convention and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child,
permitted children as young as fifteen to be legally recruited and used in combat.22
This standard is weak since under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is
defined as anyone under the age of eighteen and is entitled to special protections.23
The weak legal
standard and continued use of child soldiers in the 1990’s prompted an international group of
diverse NGOs, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, to campaign for stronger laws
relative to the use of child soldiers.24
The campaigns led to three new treaties that strengthened the
legal norms regarding the use of child soldiers.25
The provisions of these treaties are described
briefly below. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted by 120
governments, made the practice of conscripting, enlisting, or using children under the age of fifteen
in hostilities a war crime.26
In June 1999, the International Labor Organization adopted the Worst Forms of Child
Labor Convention (Convention 182), which prohibited the forced recruitment of children under the
age of eighteen for use in armed conflict.27
In May 2000, the United Nations adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, establishing eighteen as the
minimum age for participation in armed conflict, for compulsory or forced recruitment, and for any
recruitment by non-governmental armed groups.28
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
Conflicts, 20 Temp. Int’l & Comp. L.J. 57, 71 (2006).
22
Protocol I and II, at art. 77(2) and art. 4(3) (C), respectively; Convention on theRights of theChild, at art. 38.
23
Convention on the Rights of the Child, at art. 1.
24
Singer, Talk Is Cheap, at 569.
25
Id.
26
Rome Statuteof theInternational Criminal Court, July 17, 1998, art. 8 (xxvi), U.N. Doc. A/CONF.183/9, at 8, 9, 17, 37 I.L.M.
999, available at http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/statute/romefra.htm (last visited May 3, 2010).
27
International Labor Organization Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention 182, S. Treaty Doc. No. 106-S (1999), 38 I.L.M.
1207, available at http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C182 (last visited May 3, 2010).
28
OptionalProtocol to the Convention on theRights of theChild on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, G.A. Res.
54/263, Annex I (May 25, 2000), S. Treaty Doc. No. 106-37 (2000) [hereinafter OptionalProtocol].

6. of the Child also established eighteen as a minimum age for recruitment and participation in
hostilities.29
A. The Limitations of International Humanitarian Law Relative to the Use of Child Soldiers
International humanitarian law is the body of law that establishes rules that seek to limit the
effects of armed conflict by protecting non-combatants and by restricting the means and methods
of warfare.30
International humanitarian law is codified in the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and
the two 1977 Additional Protocols.31
The scope of international humanitarian law relative to the use
of children in armed conflict is limited especiallyin conflicts of a non-international nature.
As Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions affords protections to persons taking no
active part in conflicts, persons who take a direct part in hostilities fall outside this protection, thus
losing all protection guaranteed under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.32
Since Common Article 3 does not explicitly address the issue of child combatants, children who
directly participate in armed conflicts are not protected by the Geneva Conventions, thus falling
between the gaps of international humanitarian law.33
Where there are gaps or contradictions in
international humanitarian law, the long-standing Martens Clause recalls and confirms the most basic
standard:34
“In cases not covered by specific international agreements, civilians and combatants
remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law derived from
established custom, from the principles of humanity and from the dictates of public conscience.”35
29
African Charter on theRights and Welfare of theChild, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (July 11, 1990), available at
http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/global/ilo/law/afchild.htm (last visited May 3, 2010) [hereinafter African Charter].
30
Sarah L. Wells, Crimes Against Child Soldiers in Armed Conflict Situations: Application and Limits of International
Humanitarian Law, 12 Tul. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 287, 292 (2004).
31
Hackenberg, at 453.
32
Wells, at 294.
33
Id.
34
Ilene Cohn & Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, Child Soldiers: The Role of Children in Armed Conflicts, 56 (1994).
35
Report of theInternational Law Commission on theWork of its Forty-Sixth Session, U.N. GAOR, 49th Sess., Supp. No. 10, at
317, U.N. Doc. A/49/10 (1994).