Gauging International/American NGOs’ Challenging Role in Curbing the Scourge of Child Soldier in Africa

Child soldiering as a global phenomenon has been unveiled through a myriad of international news agency articles and Human Rights reports. Usually, these materials only pinpoint limited and often sensationalized cases. In this regard, there is focus of attention at the level of this paper relative to deep understanding of NGOs’ involvement in the phenomenon under study. One of the major points that this paper spotlights is the role played by international and particularly American NGOs such as UNICEF, Child Soldiers International, War Child, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International in shaping an international political and legal advocacy against the use of children in armed conflict and how to materialize it. More explicitly, the paper gauges the dimensional effects in order to curb the enduring phenomenon of child soldiers that still resists total eradication with emphasis on Africa.