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Children should lead world peace campaign

"Major progress in human development -- progress towards peace -- is possible within a single generation if the global community can find the foresight and commitment to do what is required for children," Ms. Bellamy told representatives of more than 1,000 organizations seeking an end to armed conflicts in the coming millennium. She added that a broad acceptance of the child's role in peacemaking could help generate new ideas and fresh vision for breaking inter-generational patterns of violence, discrimination and failure.

Ms. Bellamy urged immediate ratification of the statute for the International Criminal Court so that perpetrators of genocide and ethnic cleansing can no longer commit their crimes with impunity. "Those who order and carry out unspeakable crimes against other human beings must be made to understand that as surely as the sun rises, they will be called to account -- and their impunity will not stand," she said. In addition, she proposed that:

• Peace agreements should include specific reference to the demobilisation of child soldiers and their reintegration into society.
• Nations should universally agree to an international requirement that raises the age of military recruitment to 18.
• There must be a dramatic reduction in the availability of small arms and light weapons, which only serve to sustain war and conflict -- and whose portability is a major factor in turning children into combatants.
• The world must fully implement the global ban on anti-personnel landmines, which continue to kill or maim far more children than soldiers, while thwarting post-conflict reconstruction and development.
• All military, civilian and peacekeeping personnel should receive specialised child-rights training, so that they will understand their solemn legal responsibilities to all children -- including the need to shield them from egregious violation of their rights.
• Special protection must be afforded to all children caught up in armed conflict, disasters, extreme poverty and all forms of violence and exploitation.

The Children's Movement for Peace in Colombia provides the clearest proof to date that children can be essential to peace processes, Ms. Bellamy told the Hague gathering.

Three years ago, 2.7 million Colombian children ranging in age from 7 to 18 took part in a special election supported by UNICEF and many local organisations. It offered them a chance to identify which child rights they deemed most important to themselves and their communities. Their overwhelming choices were the right to survival and the right to peace.

In the process, the voices of children became the driving force behind a movement that has succeeded in making peace the central issue of Colombia's ongoing political debate. The Children's Movement for Peace has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"These young people effectively gave adults a lesson in democracy -- a lesson that brought millions back to the ballot box by giving them something eminently worth voting for -- the well-being of their children," Ms. Bellamy said. "Colombia is not yet a society at peace, but its children are helping to sow the seeds of a lasting culture of non-violence."

Ms. Bellamy said the possibilities for global conflagration that weighed heavily on the minds of the UN's founders have dwindled in recent years, and we now witness smaller conflicts like Angola, Kosovo and Rwanda, which -- however localised -- are no less universal in their horrors.

"The wounds inflicted on children in armed conflict -- physical injury, gender-based violence and psychological abuse -- are an affront to the very heart of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, history's most universally embraced human rights instrument," Ms. Bellamy noted. "That is why the international community must loudly proclaim these violations of child rights for what they are: horrific and unacceptable."

The Executive Director said that trauma is increasingly recognised as one of the most debilitating aspects of armed conflict. "Flagrant violations of human rights and humanitarian law -- whether by direct attack, silent starvation or forcible displacement -- are not experiences that children easily grow out of," she said. "The trauma of war causes wounds in children that fester for generations."

Ms. Bellamy called for a shift in perceptions of children and war.

"Children have always been a part of discussions about peace and justice, but they are rarely talked about as anything but victims. Yet they have already shown that they have a role to play as catalysts for peace," she said.

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