PRESS BRIEFINGE ON COLOMBIAN CHILDREN'S MOVEMENT FOR PEACE

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFINGE ON COLOMBIAN CHILDREN'S MOVEMENT FOR PEACE

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that it was critical to engage young people in any peace-building process and she could think of no other country where young people were more involved in such a movement than Colombia.

Ms. Bellamy was joined by the First Lady of Colombia, Nohra de Pastrana, to discuss the Colombian Children's Movement for Peace and publicize the screening of the CNN documentary “Soldiers of Peace: A Children’s Crusade”. The screening will take place at 4 p.m. Tuesday, 19 September, in Conference Room 4.

Mrs. Pastrana drew attention to Manifesto 2000 for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence, which was signed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates on 4 March 1999 and aimed to collect millions of signatures. That "peace manifesto" was important, she said, because it situated Colombia within a programme that was tantamount to a new start. Participants in the manifesto had made a pledge that within their own family, community or region, they would revive such values as freedom and justice. That was a strong sign that the citizens of Colombia wanted to move away from war and violence in this century.

The First Lady said that she had travelled throughout Colombia in order to hold workshops on the issue of reviving values. With the help of the national police, she was able to compile 12.8 million signatures of people over the age of 7 that supported the peace movement. On the basis of that movement, Colombia hoped to demonstrate to the international community how children could contribute to a peace movement.

Children in Colombia had suffered a great deal from domestic violence and paternalistic patterns of child rearing, she continued. They had also suffered from Colombian "machismo". She hoped that the CNN documentary would illustrate the complexity of the situation in Colombia. For the first time, under President Andres Pastrana, domestic violence was being spoken about openly in Colombia. Previously, whenever there was domestic violence, it was kept behind closed doors.

She said that, parallel to the President's efforts to solve the problem of violence in Colombia, her own Office, assisted by 16 government departments, was focusing on domestic violence and problems within the family. In order to make clear that the Colombian Government did not tolerate violence against children and women, her Office had crafted a campaign known as "Make Peace". The campaign had three main components. The first was preventive. The second was identifying the problem. The final component was providing care for the victims, as well as the perpetrators.

In 1998 there were 73,000 cases of domestic violence in Colombia, she said. That was about 200 a day or eight every hour. In response to the high

UNICEF Press Briefing - 2 - 18 September 2000

rate of violence, her Office had initiated a programme known as "Homes for Justice”, which was a community-based programme that brought the possibility of redress directly to the victims. There were now 11 "Homes for Justice" throughout Colombia. She hoped that the number would reach 24 at the national level.

Mrs. Pastrana said that efforts were also being made to help internally displaced people. She estimated that over the past 15 years, 1.1 million boys and girls had been displaced by the violence. Two centres would soon be operational to help care for these victims. Starting in November 2000, UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would be working together to register some 4 million people who were without civil registration.

Ms. Bellamy added that the CNN documentary reflected the fact that the nature of war was changing. Increasingly, the victims of war were no longer soldiers, but civilians. It was critical that young people be the focus of any peace activities. The Children's Movement for Peace was impressive. They had been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Asked by a correspondent if other countries had taken up any of the programmes, Mrs. Pastrana replied that she thought there might be a similar programme for domestic violence in Costa Rica. She was not sure about El Salvador and Guatemala. Once the peace process was complete, it was important for Colombia to avoid the problems of crime and domestic violence that El Salvador and Guatemala had experienced.

What was the ratio of girls to boys in Colombia's peace movement? a correspondent asked. Mrs. Pastrana replied that it was difficult to say. Women tended to be more numerous among the internally displaced persons. Whatever the case, it was important that both girls and boys work in the programme to bring about peace.

Ms. Bellamy added that she had quite a bit of interaction with the Movement for Peace and there were both boys and girls involved. Both were victims -- and sometimes victimizers. Child soldiers tended to be boys, while girls were often sex slaves or messengers. Both boys and girls had worked as promoters for peace.

A correspondent noted that the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunno, had worked with the guerrilla forces regarding the recruitment of child soldiers. Did the First Lady have anything to do with that? She replied that President Pastrana and his Government had been working very hard on that issue. Under Colombian law, no armed forces were allowed to recruit children under the age of 18.

Ms. Bellamy pointed out that a total of 69 Member States had signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child dealing with the recruitment of children under the age of 18. Three countries had ratified it already. The Millennium Summit had given the Convention a real boost.

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