A gaunt faced eleven year old carrying an M16 for the promise of beard and maybe some soup, a young girl struggling to walk with makeshift crutches because she is missing her right leg below the knee, and an orphaned toddler fleeing his home with relatives that have lost everything but their lives; these are the children of war. Governments, groups, and individuals try to prevent the damage that war inflicts upon the children and to help rehabilitate the affected children, but laws and organizations are only going so far. As it stands, these groups are not providing enough help for these children. These children will be affected for the rest of their lives because of the conflicts and wars they are experiencing.
Children have been seen as…show more content… One global effort to deal with children being exploited as soldiers was the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict which had more than 100 countries sign off on it and started to be enforced on February 12, 2002 (doc 2). This international law condemns the targeting of children and area that have large impacts on children along with enlisting children to be soldiers for armed conflicts when they are under the age of 18. This marked a major point for the legal protection for child around the world. To combat the issue of children being injured by explosives, the Mine Ban Treaty has been signed off by more than a three-quarters of the world’s countries (doc 3). This outlawed production, storage, and use of landmines. UNICEF also has made a program that teaches children in areas where landmines possibly are how to be live safely in their areas (doc 3). Governments in Europe are currently dealing with refugees fleeing into their countries and for the most part, they are trying to help these refugees to be able to live in their countries. While some countries like Denmark and Germany are taking in more refugees than others, there are some like Hungary who are more opposed to the idea. However, the refugees are learning to live by the Europeans’ rules. While governments and global groups are trying to help with the war affects that children are dealing with in areas of conflict, not everyone agreed to follow these laws or to help. Until everyone is willing to cooperate, child will still be exposed to war and the trauma that comes with