War and children

"If we want to teach true peace in this world, and if we want to carry on a real war against war, we will have to start with children," Mahatma Gandhi claimed many years ago. But a recent Save the Children report reveals that there are currently 449 million children living in conflict zones: of these, more than half – around 230 million – are in the most dangerous conflict zones, an increase of 9% compared to the previous year. 'last year. In addition, more than eight thousand children were maimed in one year, an average of 22 a day, by improvised explosive devices, real explosions or explosive remnants of war.

I also read recently - on the occasion of 12 February, the day that the UN dedicates to raising awareness of public opinion against the use of minors in wars - that, according to the report of the UN Secretary General dated 23 June 2022 (relating to the previous year, 2021, and entitled Les enfants et les conflits armès), the countries most affected by the terrible phenomenon of the direct use of minors as combatants in dozens of militias and even in regular armies are: Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Iraq, Mali, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, Nigeria. In fact, the United Nations reports over six thousand cases of minors used in combat in about twenty countries, 90% in guerrilla warfare. That's really gruesome data. Moreover, the future of those thousands of children and young people who have been removed from armies and wars and who have fortunately been freed, remains tragically very uncertain, above all in countries where, due to a serious lack of funds and resources, the return to civilian life of child soldiers are highly at risk.
To all this we must add the fact that wars spare nothing or anyone and therefore also destroy schools and hospitals, making a mockery of international conventions and depriving hundreds of thousands of people of the most elementary rights such as health and education and subtracting children a fair prospect of the future. Every armed conflict is in fact a de facto denial of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, promulgated in Paris in 1948 and conceived to avoid the recurrence of appalling tragedies such as that of the Second World War. War can only be "the eternal enemy of progress", as Kant, the great master of critical thinking, already stated in the 18th century.

All useless words?
No, words to be repeated daily, to oneself and to anyone else, in time or out of time, on purpose or inappropriately, in prose or poetry, whispered, shouted or sung, it doesn't matter! And above all words to put into practice, especially in the educational field and in every moment of the relationship with our children and young people, in the family and at school.

Educating the new generations in peace is one of the most urgent tasks that we adults must take on daily.
We have the responsibility to commit ourselves to developing in our young people knowledge, concrete attitudes, skills of all kinds that promote a culture, a mentality, a deep desire and an authentic aspiration for peace. First of all to peace with oneself (without which any true peace with others is difficult to imagine) and then to peace understood as the practical ability to recognize and constructively overcome the inevitable conflicts that arise between human beings… Peace is not a feeling, but a skill to be acquired, strengthened and updated continuously. Peace is not a utopia, but a matter of obstinacy, will and courage. Peace is not a beautiful theory, but the only indispensable condition for the survival of the world.

Gabriella Delpero
NP April 2023