Singer (2004) noted that Myanmar had one of the largest populations of child soldiers ten years ago, employed by the government to help control its vast territory, including a number of trouble regions. The use of child soldiers has been facilitated in part by technological change that has made small arms easier for children to use, and a rise in intrastate conflicts (Achvarina & Reich, 2006)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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 -- there needs to be a way to screen them for age, and social programs to help keep them in school so that they do not willingly join armed groups. At present, there has simply not been enough application of basic human rights concepts to the issue in Yemen, where security issues trump both human rights considerations and the UN Convention (Rosen, 2007)
"On a practical basis, this attitude of many middle-level bureaucrats illustrates how the military, while not technically in charge of the government, continues to dominate the country." (Nolan, 2013) There is "legacy of corruption" in Myanmar, which is reported to have the potential to worsen due to the "flood of new foreign capital into the country
By using economic interests to turn a blind eye toward abuses in Myanmar, China and Russia are financing repression and human rights abuses in Myanmar, according to Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group, (Burma: UN must act, 2006). Regrettably, as long as China and Russia sit on the UN Security Council and as long as they have economic interests in Myanmar, it will be difficult for the UN to be a driving factor for change in Myanmar (Myanmar: Sanctions, 2004)
Myanmar Since 1988, the people of Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation also known as Burma, have suffered under the leadership of a repressive military junta. The group, which has shown it will stop at nothing to retain power, exhibits such isolationist tendencies that it relocated the country's capital from Rangoon to a remote jungle construction site called Naypyidaw (Pepper, 2006)
The ruling junta in Myanmar also has aggressively suppressed political dissidence and has essentially eliminated the country's democratic processes. The last free presidential elections were held in Myanmar in 1990, and after the main opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi prevailed, the junta refused to relinquish power (Shea, 2006)
The last free presidential elections were held in Myanmar in 1990, and after the main opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi prevailed, the junta refused to relinquish power (Shea, 2006). Further, Aung San Suu Kyi has spent many of the succeeding years under house arrest and the threat of assassination, which was almost realized in a brazen attack linked to the government in 2003 (World Factbook, 2006)
British Policy Burma and China Geographically, Burma lies in a position of a natural trade rout and strategic centralized hub between two very desirable European trade locations, China and India. As, and independent monarchy, with heavy Chinese and Indian influences throughout the beginning of the colonial period its political leanings, and the pride of its monarchy provided a situation of resistance from the major European trade countries, Portugal, the Dutch, the French and Brittan (Murphy 256, 314) though attempts were made by both the Dutch and the British to establish trade stations and routs in strategic locations in the country, success was limited until the British successfully colonized Burma in the early 1800s and made it a principal of India, one of Brittan's strongholds
"The search for trade explains the successive waves of European travelers from Portugal, Holland, France, and Great Britain, and it is a constant factor in the story of British relations with China in South-East Asia." (Woodman 1) All the nations of Southeast Asia were potentially fodder for colonial expansion and the gaining of wealth, often at the extreme peril and long-term expense of the indigenous populations