"To Build Peace, It Is Hard But Not Impossible. We Have to Do It." - Children and Young People as Actors in Peace Processes and Peace Building

"This long term process provides a solid foundation for a sustained, genuine and meaningful participation of children and young people in peace processes and peace building."

In the first part of this Save the Children publication, children and young people speak in their own words about their involvement in peace building: what they are doing, why they are committed to this, what they have achieved, and their future plans and dreams. Interspersed here are quotes from children and young people from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zimbabwe, as well as from participants in an African regional workshop in 2012 and a global workshop in 2012. (The video included below is from a global advocacy initiative towards the United Nations (UN) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in New York, United States (US), in 2012, where young people advocated for their participation in peace building.)

For example, the reader learns: "In diverse settings around the world (in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Europe) children and young people are actively involved in defending their rights and are taking action to promote and sustain peace in their families, schools, communities and in wider society. Children are promoting awareness and dialogue on peace through discussions, paintings, drama, rallies, songs, magazines, traditional ceremonies and radio programs. They are working to prevent violence and conflict by encouraging their parents or caregivers and teachers to use positive discipline approaches and to resolve conflicts through good communication; and through their engagement in conflict resolution especially in schools. Through their Child Groups they are addressing discrimination based on gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, disability, income and other factors; and children are reaching out to include and support their peers from marginalized backgrounds, including former child combatants. Children are also actively participating in local and national governance mechanisms to influence practices and policies affecting them, and they have been consulted on constitutional processes (for example in Nepal and Zimbabwe) and in peace processes (for example in Uganda)."

In the second part of the report, Save the Children presents their approach to support children and young people's participation in peace building. The core of their work is described, illustrated by examples of children's contribution to peace building, as well as achievements and results. In brief, the strategy is characterised by 3 components:

1. It is child-led, meaning that it is based on children and young people's concerns and proposals.
2. It emphasises ownership of information and knowledge. Through Formative Dialogue Research, a method intending to give people opportunities to improve knowledge and recognition, children and young people have been involved in collecting and processing information. Save the Children has organised training on participatory tools to
   improve their abilities to map and report significant experiences and aspects of their lives. According to the report, these tools have "improved the possibilities for many of the children and young people to find ways of dealing with atrocities they had experienced. These changes were immense and impressive, especially for those who had been involved in armed groups and acted as child soldiers....young people became actors in constructing their lives and societies and they saw themselves as agents of peace. To be able to collect and process information, and to do it collectively in groups, has been an enormous inspiration to them."
3. It is action-oriented, involving, for instance, strengthening local, national, regional, and global networks among children and young people for experience sharing, learning, and joint advocacy on child rights and peace building. For example, children and young people from 14 countries prepared a letter during the global workshop in Oslo, Norway in May 2012 that expresses their readiness to work with adults for a more peaceful world.

Also examined are possible challenges and commitments for adults to respond to children and young people's longing for peace and their readiness to be involved in peace processes and peace building. One key point raised is that the idea that adults need to recognise that issues such as armed conflicts, peace building, reconciliation, and mediation are not too difficult for children and young people to get involved in: Save the Children "want[s] to encourage adults to develop exploratory attitudes of finding ways to listen to, communicate and have true dialogue with children, and to involve them according to their capacities, meaningful and ethical participation."