Home | UNICEF in Action | Highlights | Information Resources | Donations, Greeting Cards & Gifts | Press Centre | Voices of Youth | About UNICEF

Panel 5 - Seeds of peace: Young people in Colombia

Beginnings of a movement

Since 1992, the number of political homicides in Colombia has jumped by more than a third, from about 4,400 people in 1992 to more than 6,000 people killed in 1997. Shockingly, the murder of children has also soared: In 1996, 4,322 children were killed, a 40 per cent rise in just two years.

War in Colombia began a half-century ago with La Violencia, a brutal struggle between the two main political parties that lasted 16 years and in which 300,000 people lost their lives. Today, half the country is controlled by two guerrilla armies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which have a combined force of about 20,000 combatants. There are also believed to be about 8,000 individuals organized in paramilitary groups under the United Self-Defense Force of Colombia (ACU).

In Colombia, two adolescent boys from the Children's Movement for Peace join armed soldiers in a group handshake.

In the last decade alone, the war in Colombia has forced more than 1 million people - about 1 in every 37 Colombians - from their homes. Most of the displaced come from poor rural communities, and a disproportionate number are indigenous or Afro-Colombian. Over 70 per cent of the displaced are women and children who flee to the cities and are then plunged into abject poverty. Children are the main victims of the war and are among the chief perpetrators of violence, as more than 2,000 of them under the age of 15 have been recruited into guerrilla and paramilitary organizations.

Against this grim backdrop, the young people of Colombia decided to do what few dare to do: Work for peace.

In 1996, Graça Machel, an expert appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, completed a global study on the 'Impact of Armed Conflict on Children'. Her investigation took her to Colombia, where she visited Apartadó, a town in the heart of the war-torn Uraba region where guerrillas had been fighting for more than 30 years. Farliz Calle, the 17-year-old daughter of a banana plantation worker, was president of the student council at the local high school and remembers the visit. "For the first time," recounts Farliz, gesturing animatedly to emphasize her message, "the authorities asked children to think in a constructive way about what was happening to us, about the violence and what we wanted to do about it."

The young people of Uraba had a lot to say: 5,000 of them, from more than a dozen townships in the area, wrote stories, poems and letters, painted pictures and constructed sculptures to create a grand exhibition for Ms. Machel. The student council also drew up a Declaration for the Children of Apartadó, which Farliz presented to Ms. Machel. The Declaration asserted, "We ask the warring factions for peace in our homes, for them not to make orphans of children, to allow us to play freely in the streets and for no harm to come to our small brothers and sisters.…" Farliz and the other children demanded a right to play a more active role in solving problems in the community "so that our children do not suffer as we have."

The story might have ended there, but the students pressed their case. Embracing the Colombian Constitution, which had been rewritten in 1991 with guarantees for citizens to participate in their democracy, the students claimed a right to form a 'local government of children'. With the blessing of her embattled municipality, Farliz was elected the first 'child mayor' of Apartadó. This experience was to change her forever.

"To have peace you need to solve poverty, and children cannot do that," says Farliz, bubbling with energy and enthusiasm, "but we found other things." The group named themselves the Children's Movement for Peace in Apartadó, and they began organizing 'peace carnivals' for children from poor communities. They felt that finding ways for children to have fun was itself a way of making peace.

After Ms. Machel's visit, UNICEF invited the children and adolescents from Apartadó to take part in a workshop where young people from all around Colombia, including Juan Elias, came together to describe how violence was affecting them and to talk about how they could work for peace. "I realized that we in Apartadó were not alone," recalls Farliz. Out of this conference was born the Children's Movement for Peace.

The first goal of the Movement was to organize 500,000 youths to vote in a special referendum - the Children's Mandate for Peace and Rights. UNICEF provided funding and technical support for REDEPAZ (the National Network of Peace Initiatives) to help organize the voting, with assistance from the national Government. Many other groups became involved, including religious and children's organizations, the Catholic Church, the Colombian Red Cross, the Colombian Scouts and the YMCA. The intention was to empower the young people of Colombia as peacemakers and encourage the nation to listen to their voices.

What happened next stunned the country: Six months after the plan was conceived, nearly 3 million children and adolescents turned out - roughly one third of the total population between the ages of 7 and 18. In many municipalities, the voter turnout was over 90 per cent. Of the dozen rights they could vote for, two thirds of the young voters chose the rightsto survival, peace, family and freedom from abuse.

Several months following the election, Farliz and Juan Elias presided at a summit meeting with representatives from every organization that had supported the Mandate. Over three days, young Colombians aged 7 through 16 shared their ideas about what they should do in the name of peace and how young people could participate in a global peace process.

On 7 December 1996, Juan Elias Uribe - just a few months after his father's murder-presented the Declaration of the Children's Summit for Peace and Rights to Colombian President Ernesto Samper. Juan Elias declared, "We hope that you, Mr. President, and all adults in this country will look for all practical and feasible means to do away with violence and war, so that the children of Colombia will no longer be badly treated."

About adolescents

More than 1 billion people of the six billion in the world are between the ages of 10 and 19. Working with adolescents provides a unique opportunity to break a number of vicious, intergenerational cycles, such as gender discrimination, violence and poverty. Adolescents have a profound and direct influence on the next generation because of their roles as older siblings, heads of households, parents and members of civil society. They are filled with fresh ideas and know how we can best reach them with relevant interventions; they represent one of any society's most underutilized resources. Ensuring that teenagers participate in their communities and civil society is fundamental to protecting their right to development and to ensuring that their rights are protected and met. Providing adolescents with skills, information, support and services increases their capabilities to avoid or overcome many of the problems they are likely to encounter, such as violence, accidents, substance abuse and unwanted or unsafe sex. Adolescents are not a homogeneous group; they live in different circumstances and have varying needs. Recognizing their differences and responding to them will help ensure the rights of all adolescents - including those who are among the disadvantaged.

Home | UNICEF in Action | Highlights | Information Resources | Donations, Greeting Cards & Gifts | Press Centre | Voices of Youth | About UNICEF