Dignity, Development, and the Gravity of Child Soldiering

This paper critically examines two formulations of the view that the crime of using child soldiers is less serious than other international crimes. The first formulation presents a sociological argument that using child soldiers is not as serious as other international crimes involving rape or murder, and the second formulation relies on deontological moral norms to argue that using child soldiers is less serious than crimes involving murder because child soldiering does not violate fundamental human values, like the right to life. After critically examining each formulation of this view, I argue that using child soldiers does violate a fundamental human value by attacking the dignity of the developing child, where dignity is understood in terms of a person’s moral agency.