What Young People Are Saying The bimonthly newsletter of Voices of Youth OCTOBER 2003 NO. 7 http://www.unicef.org/voy/news/ YOUNG PEOPLE CALL FOR PEACE AND TOLERANCE More than ever before, young people are using Voices of Youth as an arena to explore issues related to conflict and war. With 1975 new messages in less than two years, activity on the Children & War discussion board is almost double that on any other board. The breadth and complexity of the many discussion threads on the board demonstrate young people’s acute political consciousness and their dedication to participate actively in the shaping of their societies during critical and painful times. Survey analysis Thanks for your responses to the VOY survey. Check out what you told us. WEBSITE SPOTLIGHT Go Girls! Chats Young people from eight countries chat about education and sports. Read more! UPCOMING Complete upgrade of VOY! Look out for VOY’s new design, more interactive features and updated content! Water, environment & sanitation New content and joining up with the International Year of Fresh Water. INSIGHT OF THE MONTH “Child abuse is an important issue in our society, but what we must learn is that if our own governments are not doing enough about it the youth should take means to help the victims and the possible victims. community projects should be formulated in which confidence is built up in children and when these projects work in more and more communities then government can be approached” girl, 16, South Africa OVERVIEW Since January 2001, young people from 102 countries participated in Voices of Youth’s Children & War discussion board. The majority of participants are between 12 and 15 years old, English speakers, and from Australia, Brazil, Canada and USA. The discussions on the Children & War board vary greatly in their focus and depth, oscillating between a more general discussion of child rights, and exploration of specific conflicts, such as the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Independent of the focus, all young people on Voices of Youth see children as the primary victims of war. They express outrage that young people are not better protected from the ravages of war, and explicitly accuse conflict – and those who incite conflict – of denying children their rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Young people also give significant attention to what factors incite war, and in turn what actions can prevent it. Participants focus particularly on diversity: The fact that the world is made of people of many different colours, races, religions and abilities. They see “difference” as one of the primary reasons for conflict, and call on their leaders and peers to celebrate the world’s diversity and unify behind it. Young people see themselves as the key to peace and understanding, both today and tomorrow. They are asking for the chance to play an active role in the shaping of their world, and believe in their ability to lead the world in tolerance and understanding. Following is a brief summary of what young people are saying about conflict in the context of child rights. For an in-depth summary of their views on Iraq please see March 03 summary (PDF). For more information contact: Amber Oliver, Coordinator, voy@unicef.org CHILD RIGHTS Young people on Voices of Youth are particularly concerned with the impact conflicts and wars have on children’s and adolescent’s rights. They feel that children “bear the main burden” of war as so many of their rights are denied during times of conflict. Messages speak of how conflict adversely impacts all aspects of a young person’s life, taking away the ability to feel safe from harm, be cared for by parents, have leisure time, and grow and develop psychologically and physically: INDONESIA “…three major destruction that war produces is exploitation of children’s rights to study, loss of warmth and love in a family, causes terrible feelings of trauma for kids and the beloved.” girl, 12 Education: As with all Voices of Youth discussions, young people focus particular attention on the value and need for education. They see education as the key to a young person’s ability to grow and develop into the person s/he wants to become, and fear a bleak future when an education is denied. LITHUANIA “Many children lose opportunity to learn after the war, because quite a few of them become disabled. They can’t walk, they can’t write. They feel constant pain. They feel pain deep in their hearts because of the loss of family members and relatives. And they have no choice !” girl, 13 Psychological Impact: Of the many rights related issues discussed, young people express particular concern about the psychological impact of war on children and adolescents. Participants speak of the trauma and mental stress of seeing the horrors of war, and the long term impact that those sights and sounds have on a child. INDIA “some conflicts leave behind dreadful nightmares that remain as scars on the minds of the sufferers and this in turn affects the society in which these frightened people live. They do not easily socialise in a limited circle and hardly have anything left in them to share with the society and environment. The terrifying images of war that they have witnessed remain with them for lifetime.” girl, 14 Vicious cycle of conflict: Participants also speak of the “lessons” that a child learns during times of conflict—hatred, violence and vengeance—and how these lessons can result in a vicious cycle of conflict. NIGERIA “As the crisis in the Niger delta area in Nigeria persists, the young and the innocents get to suffer for what their leaders, fathers setup. At an early age, they have lost their childhood that cannot be regained. But if the government does nothing about it now, more children will learn to handle arms and kill people ranging from people who are old enough to be their parents to people that are meant to be their friends. What will become of them when they grow up? That is if they ever do.” girl, 20 CHILDREN & WAR ISSUES IN CONTEXT October 2003 Click on a link to read what Young People Are Saying about Children & War Child rights Child soldiers What brings on conflict? The media What can young people do? What can leaders do? Conclusion CHILD SOLDIERS For many young people on Voices of Youth, the issue of child soldiers is the entry point into a discussion of children and war. Young people are outraged and frightened that children are forced to fight in “adult wars” when the leaders who start the wars are “hiding in their houses” (boy, 13, Pakistan). CÔTE D’IVOIRE “Pourquoi dans les pays developpés quand il y a la guerre ce sont les enfants qu'on prend pour qu'ils aillent combattre? Cela est de l'injustice envers les enfants. Ils leurs donnent des armes et tout et tout.” girl, 12 In trying to understand the plight of child soldiers, participants devote considerable attention to identifying what factors make a young person vulnerable to becoming a child soldier. Three factors are highlighted: The loss of one or more parents, being an orphan; Poverty; and lacking a safe and supportive environment. In other words, participants feel that some children are susceptible to becoming a child soldier because their day to day lives lack the security and care they need to feel safe, and so join the army because it is seen as a better, and possibly more secure, alternative. CHINA “Children become soldiers because they're orphans, or abandoned by parents, or runaway from home. They [want] to have food and place to live, so they join the army. maybe we can provide a place which have food, shelter, education, money etc., and so those children don't have to look for those things in the army.” girls, 18 Real Lives: A surprising number of children use Voices of Youth as a space to talk about their personal experiences as child soldiers. Former child soldiers from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Uganda all took a moment to tell their stories about the horrors of war. It is significant to note that only one of the former child soldiers who identified him or herself on the board still lives in the country where she fought, and all but one is over 21 years of age. POETRY FOR PEACE MALAYSIA A child walk slowly passed the ruins / Her eyes are weary and in tears / Tears of frighten and sorrow / Of fear losing her one and only family / She looked around wildly / Like a lost child trying to find her path In her arms, a tore teddy bear she holds / The only remains from her torn house / Where are mommy and daddy? / Where are my beloved brother and sister? / Why did they run and left me? / She mumbles to herself as she walked by / Then, she stumbles on to something / Still holding on to her teddy bear / She fell to the ground and gave a quiet sigh / Where it soon turns to a horrific scream / What she saw crushes her small heart In front of her, cold familiar faces Lies still in the mud Lifeless bodies of her family” girl, >21 FRANCE “Chez moi, c’est l’horreur, il vaut mieux ne plus sortir. / Chez moi, c’est la terreur, de tous, tour à tour partir. / Chez moi, c’est l’enfer, ce sont nos pères, nos frères qui s’en vont. / Chez moi, c’est la guerre, guerre de religion dit-on. / Chez moi, ce sont les cris, qui subsistent jours et nuits. / Chez moi, c’est la vie qui nous fausse compagnie. / Chez moi, c’est la peur qui règne lorsque l’on sort. / Chez moi, c’est la douleur, que de voir à terre tous ces morts. / Mais chez moi, le plus dur, c’est l’attente. / L’interminable attente d’une Paix réelle. / Avant que tous ne nous tenaillent / Mais cette Paix, existera-t-elle avant qu’à mon tour je n’ m’en aille?” girl, 14 LIBERIA “I know what it is to be victimized by a civil war on a first hand basis. Growing up in Liberia at the age of nine I was forced into a brutal gorilla warfare and trained as soldier, not only me, but me and some other friends. Some survived, some were wounded for live and some died at a very early age. Every night when it's time to rest my head I'm very scared that I might be hunted by people who were killed in the war, especially friends who were fighting in the war with me. May we bless those people and children…” boy, 21 WHAT BRINGS ON CONFLICT? Many messages try and understand what factors incite conflicts and wars in the world we live in today. JORDAN “When you see people are still justifying wars and killings for oil, you understand how unhuman and uncivilised world we are living in... Therefore I think that the world will keep being hungry and unsafe and unfair...” boy, >21 Vested Interests: Participants disagree fundamentally on why leaders opt for war. Many messages accuse leaders of going to war for political reasons or for personal “advantage” to gain “resources, territory, economics, or power.” They see war as the ultimate form of greed and as a key factor in the world’s inability to improve the standard of living of many of its people today. A belief that in some cases war can bring peace: Still other participants feel that there are times when war is not only justified, but required. They argue that “sometimes war is necessary to have peace. There are the people that cause wars, and people that want peace must sometimes get involved to keep tyrants and others with bad intentions out of power.” (boy, 17, USA) Diversity: Many young people feel that the diverse nature of the world is the reason that wars and conflicts persist today, and will continue to plague us tomorrow. AUSTRALIA “War has and always will happen, There will never be pure peace and eradication of all conflict in the world, because the world is made up of many different people with different and conflicting ideas, values, needs and beliefs.” girl, 17 In light of this, young people feel that the only way to prevent war is for the world to recognize and celebrate its diversity. ARGENTINA “So instead of killing each other to reach an impossible thing, why don't we accept all our culture has disadvantages and advantages. So that, we can tried to mend ours mistakes…I think we should live in society where you can be free and believe what you want and respect others…because all ideas have bad and good points.” girl, 16 Please see “What young people are saying about the Conflict in Iraq” (PDF), March 03, for how these questions are dealt with in the context of the war in Iraq. CHILDREN & WAR THE MEDIA Since 1996, the prompt question on the Children & War message board has remained: “Why do some conflicts attract more attention than others?”. In response to this question, many participants focus on the role of the media and how it influences the way the world responds to, and understands, conflicts. Young people feel that the media often presents a biased view of conflicts, giving more prominence to those that have economic interest. They also criticize the media for “distorting and changing information to manipulate our thoughts” (girl, 17, Australia). Participants call on the media to provide an unbiased and objective view of world events so proper action can be taken and we can “possibly know what is the right thing to do.” CONCLUSION Young people on Voices of Youth are asking to participate—and partner—in the decisions affecting their lives and communities. They see themselves as primary stakeholders in fostering and maintaining peace, understanding and tolerance, both today and tomorrow. UNITED STATES “We are the future of our nation and what we believe in is what we should believe in our whole lives and if we share what we feel then we can make a difference in tomorrows world. Don't listen and not speak whether at home or at school you have your own opinion and should show others why you think that way. Keep this saying in your head as you grow that we are the ones that decide what our world will become and I'm not to sure if we want a country full of hate and violence. So what are you going to do about it sit by and watch our country change in ways we don't want it to or are you going to tell what you believe? It's up to us!!” girl, 12 WHAT CAN YOUNG PEOPLE DO? Speak out! “We should speak out openly against right and wrong. We are the future of this world and it makes a huge lot of difference what we think and how we act.” (girl, 21, ?) Volunteer: “I suggest a mission of youth visit, talk and survey the situation, then submit a report and an appeal to the youth calling for volunteering for participation with the NGOs and the Reconstruction companies in the wiping of the war scars.” (boy, >21, Sudan) Unify: “When its time for us to shine... our generations time. when we are the presidents we will know what not to do and all this arguing is not a good thing hey?? Ii believe that us as youth it is imperative for us to get along. just to prove the whole world wrong. In us, as divided as we are…lies a mighty empire that will be remembered forever. and bitterness is not worth it guys. we need unity coz divided all we can possibly do is fall.” (girl, 16, Zimbabwe) Develop skills: “We, as children, can decrease war by working on our skills. We should work on how to get along with others in our life and not make war.” (girl, 15, Australia) Use the media: “Create a forum for kids and teenagers where they can send letters and drawings directed to presidents, prime ministers etc... and select the best ones, that would be published by newspapers and magazines that are interested in the project.” (girl, 14, Mexico) WHAT CAN LEADERS DO? Sanctions: “Ban the factories which produce child-size weapons” (girls, 18, China) Accountability: Leaders need to be held accountable for their actions and implement policies that prevent war and conflict. (girl, 15, Australia) Build awareness: “The only way to stop [child soldiers] is to educate the government on this matter.” (girl, 20, USA) LITHUANIA “If parents don’t teach their children kindness and peace, later they wouldn’t be proud for them, and they would feel pity. Then in country will develop much more aggressive teenagers and much more teenagers would have to go to remedy house… But to reach peace is not very easy. If man doesn’t want to deal, then wouldn’t be peace. If we want that in our streets, school, city or village would be peaceful, we have to try to teach our friends and younger children not to fight, but be friendly.” girl, 13 VOICES OF YOUTH http://www.unicef.org/voy/ Since 1995, VOY has focused on exploring the educational and community building potential of the Internet, and facilitating the active and substantive participation of young people on child rights and development related issues. Through web boards, interactive quizzes, youth leadership profiles, live chats and more, Voices of Youth provides more than 20,000 young people from over 180 countries with an opportunity to self-inform, engage in lively debate, and partner—with their peers and decision makers—to create a world fit for children. MAP OF PROGRAMMES FOR ADOLESCENT PARTICIPATION DURING CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT SITUATIONS On the occasion of the International Day of Peace, 21 September 2003, UNICEF released a ‘Map of Programmes for Adolescent Participation During Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations’. This map was jointly developed by UNICEF’s Office of the Emergency Programme and Adolescent Development and Participation Unit. Please visit the ‘‘Map’ online at: http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_issues.html. WHAT IS THE ‘MAP’? * The ‘Map’ is an information sharing tool that documents the participation of adolescents in community development and peace-building activities during conflict and post-conflict situations. * The ‘Map’ represents the work of a broad spectrum of partners, including NGOs, UN agencies, governments, community leaders, teachers, parents and most importantly, young people. * The second part of the ‘Map' documents a list of youth groups and networks engaging their peers in issues related to adolescent participation during conflict and post-conflict situations world-wide, which includes a reference to Voices of Youth. HOW CAN THE ‘MAP’ BE USED? The initiatives described in the ‘Map of Programmes for Adolescent Participation During Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations’ demonstrate how young people’s participation in community life can develop their capacity and potential, especially during times of social conflict and crisis. A key element of adolescent participation is the provision of opportunities for young people to express themselves, contributing their voice, opinions and ideas to the social dialogue. The ‘Map’ is intended to encourage networking, information sharing and collaboration among adults and youth working with and for adolescents in war-affected countries, and to generate new activities promoting young people’s participation. Please note that the ‘Map’ will be updated periodically.