The State of the World's Children 2000

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Panel 5 - Seeds of peace: Young people in Colombia

Peace: A universal cause

The Children's Movement for Peace inspired a war-weary and despairing nation to redouble efforts to end violence. The fragmented Colombian peace movement unified, and in January 1997, REDEPAZ, UNICEF and the anti-kidnapping organization País Libre announced that a Mandate for Peace, Life and Liberty would be placed before the Colombian people that October, during the regional elections. One hundred 'peace points' were established around the country where local governments and NGOs publicized and explained the Mandate. Young children and teenagers continued to feature prominently in the campaign.

One year after the children's election, on 26 October 1997, more than 10 million adults went to the polls - over twice the turnout of previous elections. Their votes expressed their desire for an end to the war and to atrocities and to involving children under 18 in warfare.

The emblem for the Children's Mandate for Peace in Colombia, 'hands' appeared all over the country on buttons, decals, flyers, walls and television screens.

The vote for the Mandate was symbolic but the political impact was real. Warring factions were finally denied their claim to represent 'the people', since 10 million citizens had overwhelmingly voted for peace. The Mandate succeeded in making peace the central focus of the 1998 presidential campaign. President Andres Pastrana took office in August 1998 wearing a green ribbon on his lapel, the symbol of the Citizen's Mandate for Peace, Life and Liberty.

José Ramos-Horta, winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to win independence for East Timor, visited Colombia in 1997 and met Farliz Calle, Juan Elias Uribe and other participants in the Children's Movement for Peace. He was so struck by the tenacity and vision of the young people that he nominated them for the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize. "The process initiated in Colombia has a chance to mobilize people and the world into a potent force for peace," declared Mr. Ramos-Horta, surrounded by a group of children. "The cause they represent," he said, motioning to the young faces around him, "is not only a Colombian cause. It is a universal cause."

Once viewed only as the victims of war, children are now seen as the purveyors of peace. Leaders of the Children's Movement for Peace, including Farliz Calle and Juan Elias Uribe, travelled to New York to visit the United Nations and, joined by 14-year-old Mayerly Sanchez, visited The Hague in the Netherlands to discuss their peacemaking strategies with children from other nations.

For Juan Elias Uribe, the tragic death of his father inspired him to work harder for peace: "My father's death hit me very hard," he says. "I thought that all the work I was doing for peace was worth nothing, because it had not saved him…. In the end, my father's death gave me a more realistic attitude towards peace. I realized that if they did not stop me when my father was alive, they could do nothing to stop me now."

Mayerly Sanchez explains, "Children have a special gift for convincing people about the truth of what is happening. People never used to care about the war unless they were directly affected by it. But when children talk about pain and sorrow, we make adults feel the pain as if it was their own. Children are the seed of the new Colombia. We are the seeds that will stop the war."

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