Judges,
         

Did you know that there are currently 120,000 children in war in Africa? So many children are struggling right now to find food and shelter. They didn’t want the war, but they had no choice but to join it. Most of the children are being sentenced to jail for something they didn’t want to do but were forced to.
         

The people that are sending these innocent children to jail are the judges and government. You must think they’re a threat but the truth is over 80% suffered from PTSD and physiological distress after witnessing people they knew from their village get murdered. Do you think this is fair? Sending these children to jail after coming from the war. The soldiers say they'll provide them with shelter and food, but the cost for that is basically their whole life in war and combat.Children that age shouldn't go through the things that they're going through right now.
         

When they come from the war you say that they’re guilty of crimes even though they were forcibly recruited and forced, under threat of harm, to commit war crimes. They should not be accused of crime because they deserve to have freedom. When they join the war their education is being destroyed. One of the main reasons of children wanting to escape the war is to start over and have education. Without education escaping and going through all those struggles was worth nothing.
         

Child Soldiers should not be accused for crime because they need time to recover and heal since they're traumatized and scarred of the war .How would you feel if you just witnessed people you knew and cared about drop down dead in front of your eyes and not have any time to  recuperate? Maybe you’re forgetting that they are simply children and still deserve to have better future. An opportunity to relive their childhood, and have a life the life that was taken away from them when they joined the war.
           

When a child no younger than 7 years old is taken away from their home and joins the war and starts to kill and or used as a sex slave they should have the right to be free but instead you're putting them in jail and accusing them of crimes. It doesn't matter what age they are they should have the same right we did when we were growing up. 

    
        
 Sincerely,
 

Anonymously