Children and Transitional Justice: Truth-Telling, Accountability and Reconciliation

FLORENCE-BOSTON, 9 March 2010 – The systematic use and abuse of children in conflicts across the world has continued, unabated, over the past 20 years, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said today. Grave violations which persist against girls and boys include murder, rape, assault, sexual slavery and forced recruitment.

Speaking at the launch of the UNICEF-Harvard University publication, Children and Transitional Justice: Truth-Telling, Accountability and Reconciliation, the Nobel Laureate said that “the seemingly endless cycle of violence and conflict, turning children into instruments of war, must be stopped”.

While prosecution is essential to improve accountability for such crimes, the Archbishop said that any successful transition from war to peace must ensure that children have a place – and a voice – in helping to build a peaceful and stable future. The vision and ambition therefore of transitional justice is to enable societies that have been torn apart by conflict and violence to recover and to empower individuals – victims, witnesses and perpetrators – to recount their experiences and agree on a measure of justice to guide their future.

“The death and suffering of children in times of conflict and instability make it clear that the world has failed to prioritize the rights and well-being of children,” said Archbishop Tutu. “Transitional justice processes are a chance to set things right, and their success or failure depends to a large degree on how they involve children.” (continue reading…)

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On March 20, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, along with more than 100 other peace groups, will be marching for peace in Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco, to mark the start of the 8th year of the Iraq war.

PEACE PLEASE supports these marches, and we hope that all those who are able will join us there. For further information please visit www.March20.org.

Additionally, starting on March 15, a Peace of the Action tent city is being set up on the grounds of the Washington Mall, with the intent to remain there until the troops start coming home. Various actions are planned to bring attention to the ongoing cost of these wars to our troops, our economy and the Afghan and Iraqi people.

It’s time to make that “ONE DAY” - of the Matisyahu song playing on the Peace Please home page - NOW. Please, do all you can.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, February, 2010 - Six weeks after the massive earthquake that devastated parts of Haiti, UNICEF is urgently scaling up its response on behalf of children, according to the agency’s Deputy Executive Director, Hilde Johnson.

Johnson said that the challenges UNICEF faced in Haiti were unprecedented, but that every effort was being made to find creative solutions to help Haiti’s children.

Ms. Johnson was speaking during a three-day visit to Port-au-Prince, during which she saw first-hand UNICEF’s emergency relief efforts since the January 12 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people and displaced over a million. She also held extensive talks with Government leaders, UN and other partners on the longer-term recovery and reconstruction phases.

“Some progress has been made, but clearly the international community must put its fullest efforts into assisting Haiti, and especially children, even more,” said Ms. Johnson.

During her stay, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director met children at a newly-established tent school in Cite Sportif de Carrefour, one of more than 400 camps for displaced people that have sprung up in earthquake-hit areas of the country. The camp is the first to be provided with the full range of UNICEF educational, protection, health, water and sanitation services. (continue reading…)

“In the battle of life, it is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better.

The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

-Theodore Roosevelt