Since the beginning of warfare, child soldiers have been utilized in combat in order to augment a militia to the largest size possible. For example, in both of the World Wars, thousands of underage soldiers were employed on both sides of the conflict, either due to the child’s own volition or by force. However, as human rights issues have increasingly become the topic of discussion since WWII, the implementation of child soldiers in war has become one of the most condemned practices in the conduct of campaigns. Accordingly, the United Nations have established human rights laws that declare the minimum age of a soldier be 18 years across the globe. There have also been numerous initiatives to further discourage the use of underage soldiers, such as the UNICEF campaign “Children, Not Soldiers”. Unfortunately, these efforts have not prevented countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen from exploiting their nation’s children for the sake of their armed conflicts. Therefore, the goal of the UNSC’s legislation should not only address how to further impede the use of child soldiers, but also should determine how to hold offending countries accountable for their violating actions in the future.
The conduct of international relations was forever changed by the creation and implementation of nuclear weapons. Since witnessing the catastrophic effects created by the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the global community has formulated concrete legislation such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to protect the world against nuclear warfare. Still, aggressive countries such as North Korea and Iran have used the threat of increasing their nuclear arsenal as leverage to achieve their goals and create fear amongst their enemies. As tensions have persistently ensued with these countries moving into the new decade, efforts to disarm them and further address the issue of nuclear weaponry and possession remain at the utmost importance. It is the duty of the UNSC to formulate a careful plan regarding this topic, with the goal of restricting the accumulation of nuclear armament.
Email: jccoelho@udel.edu