We, youth, are engaged in shaping lasting peace in our communities as positive contributors to peace, justice and reconciliation.
Amman Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security, 2015
Peace and security in Europe
A culture of human rights is a pre-condition for a genuine state of peace because denial of human rights inevitably leads to conflict and violence. However, the reverse also holds true: conflict and violence always result in violations of human rights – and in the case of war, the violations are comprehensive and on a terrible scale. Sustainable, lasting peace and security can only really be attained when all human rights are properly fulfilled.
Children in Europe continue to be affected by armed conflict – both directly and indirectly in openarmed conflicts or in “frozen conflicts”. European nations are involved in many of these international conflicts, often as participant and contributor – for example, in providing arms, support and training. Armed conflicts elsewhere in the world are also responsible for children seeking refuge and asylum. There are also non-military threats to peace and security within Europe. Many of these are the result of man-made environmental crises such as climate change, soil degradation and industrial farming practices. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods and drought have increased in recent years as a result of global climate change, and these have led to insecurity of home, health and even threats to life in some parts of Europe. Other potential sources of conflict in Europe include widening inequality, both economic and cultural. Such inequalities inevitably lead to intolerance, which often displays itself in the form of racism and can take violent forms.
In an increasingly high-tech, globalised world, the nature of conflict has changed, but there are still far too many casualties among civilians, including children. According to UNICEF, 2019 concluded a “deadly decade” for children in conflict with more than 170,000 grave violations against children.1 This is equivalent to 45 violations every day for the last 10 years, including killing, maiming, sexual violence, abductions, denial of humanitarian access, child recruitment and attacks on schools and hospitals. Child refugees make up more than half of the total numbers of refugees worldwide: more than 11 million children have been forced to flee their homes and are living as refugees2. This does not include the millions of children on the move who are not recognised refugees.
Peace and human security
Human security is a relatively recent concept which recognises the interrelation between violence and all kinds of deprivation. The concept of human security refers to the protection of individuals and communities both from direct threats of physical violence, as well as from indirect threats resulting
from such things as poverty, social or political inequality, or natural disasters and disease. A country or region may not be under immediate threat of attack, but it can still be insecure if, for example, it is unable to maintain the rule of law, if large populations are displaced by famine or decimated by disease, or if people’s basic survival needs are not met.
Human security advances human rights because it addresses grave threats to human rights and supports the development of systems that give people the building blocks of survival: respect for dignity and autonomy, and essential freedoms, such as freedom from want and freedom from fear. In 2012, a Resolution of the UN General Assembly determined that “the notion of human security includes … the right of people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair. All individuals, in particular vulnerable people, are entitled to freedom from fear and freedom from want, with an equal opportunity to enjoy all their rights and fully develop their human potential…”.
Approaches to human security advocate strategies of protection and empowerment: protection helps to shield people from direct dangers, but also seeks to develop norms, processes and institutions that maintain security. Empowerment enables people to develop their potential and become full participants, including being involved in decision-making.
Which factors threaten the human security in your community? How does this insecurity affect children?
Peace as a human right
The Preamble of the CRC declares that children should be brought up in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity. Peace is not just the absence of conflict and violence; it is a way of living together so that all members of society can see their human rights fulfilled. Peace is seen as essential to the realisation of human rights and many see it as a human right in itself. In 2016, the UN General Assembly approved the Declaration on the Right to Peace. Article 1 of the Declaration states that “everyone has the right to enjoy peace such that all human rights are promoted and protected and development is fully realized”. This is in line with 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals that affirms “there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development”. An earlier UN Declaration on a Culture of Peace was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1999. According to this document, the responsibility for promoting a culture of peace rests with all members of the community, including parents, teachers, politicians, journalists and civil society institutions and organisations.
Peace education
Peace education is education that reflects Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes not simply the right to education but one which is “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”. Such an education should promote “understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups” and further “the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace”. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also declares that “education of the child should be directed to … the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin”.
Peace education teaches the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behavioural change which will enable children, young people and adults to manage conflict and avoid violence, both overt and structural, to resolve disagreements peacefully, and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an interpersonal, inter-group, national or international level. Peace education improves children’s self-esteem, develops their problem-solving skills and helps them to avoid unsafe behaviour.
Peace education is an important element of many educational approaches which aim to promote human rights and a culture of peace and democracy, starting with human rights education. Peace education seeks to understand and eliminate the causes of conflict, such as poverty and all forms of discrimination, as well as to teach skills of conflict management. Peaceful resolution of conflict is a skill which can be cultivated and learned from early childhood.
Typically, children experience conflict with their peers, with parents, teachers and other adults. Conflict should not be seen as inherently negative or damaging: it can usually be transformed, often in a positive direction. In contrast, violence – the aggressive use of force or abusive exercise of power – always results in injury and destruction. For this reason, society has developed many ways of handling conflict using non-violent methods such as dialogue, negotiation and mediation. ‘Dialogue’ between individuals is the essence of human understanding and the only way to reach consensus; ‘negotiation’ means direct discussion between the disputing parties, while ‘mediation’ involves a neutral, third party.3
Learning to deal with conflict and to refrain from violence is an important lesson in socialisation for all children. Conflicts can be resolved in three different ways: a “win-win” solution, which allows both parties to benefit, a “win-lose” solution in which only one party benefits at the expense of the other, and the “lose-lose” solution in which neither party benefits. The following technique of conflict resolution in six stages can be applied to any situation:
How do the children you work with usually react to conflict? Are there ways you can help them learn to manage and resolve conflict more effectively?
3 Education for conflict prevention and peacebuilding: meeting the global challenges of the 21st century, UNCESCO, 2012. Pp.15-16.
4 EDC/HRE Volume VI: Teaching democracy – A collection of models for democratic citizenship and human rights education, Council of Europe, 2009. pp. 80-82.
Which factors threaten the human security in your community? How does this insecurity affect children?