Written statement by Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro Rivero, IFRC President, for Save the Children's Rewrite the Future, published in the World Wide Web
We in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), with our community base in virtually every country in the world, strongly support the vision at the base of this open letter. Peace does indeed begin in the minds of children.
Our Constitution, and the strategies we have in place, all emphasise the role of our National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in building safe communities. We recognise that this has special implications at the community level and for volunteers, and that children and youth must be built into the function through involvement in the design, implementation and evaluation of all programs.
This has been stressed by our National Societies at all levels, including at our International Federation’s General Assembly in November 2007. It has also featured in our presentations to the United Nations and other international bodies and in coordinated advocacy with partner organisations sharing the same ideals and goals.
Strategic framework on peace The mission of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity.
We are also committed, through our Global Agenda, to support the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Goal 2, which aims to achieve universal primary education for all boys and girls by 2015, is not a goal with which the IFRC is directly involved, but it is supported by our active involvement in the pursuit of other goals which cannot be achieved without such basics as literacy, numeracy and gender equality.
Goals 4 and 5, on child mortality and maternal health, are much more directly related to the work of our National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Other goals related to development, including of course Goal 1 on poverty reduction, are equally relevant to us.
I mention these points because our view is that while Peace begins in the minds of children, the minds of children will also be formed within a wider environment and it is the task of all organisations to work together to build environments in which children can make a contribution which is real.
That is why we so readily understand the plea for help for children in communities affected by armed conflict. Natural disaster settings are as damaging to a child’s education prospects , and so are situations where communities are deprived of teachers, schools and other education necessities by diseases like HIV.
Our Red Cross Red Crescent is committed to achieving its results within a framework set by seven Fundamental Principles – humanity, neutrality, impartiality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
Building respect for humanity as an essential condition for peace in communities and between nations has been at the centre of Red Cross and Red Crescent hearts since the earliest days of our Movement nearly 150 years ago.
The IFRC itself was founded in 1919 to allow Red Cross Societies to strengthen their capacity individually and jointly to address humanitarian needs in the multilateral world formed in the aftermath of the First World War.
Since that time, the Movement has grown and flourished, and it has never deviated from its humanitarian goals and aspiration to contribute to the maintenance and promotion of peace in the world.
In 1986, for instance, the year styled by the United Nations as the International Year of Peace, the 25th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent which brings together all RCRC National Societies, States parties to the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC and the IFRC , clearly subscribed to the vision of peace, as previously defined by the Federation’s Commission on peace.
The Conference made it clear that the Red Cross Red Crescent sees peace as much more than the absence of war: it is “…a dynamic process of co-operation among all States and peoples; co-operation founded on respect for freedom, independence, national sovereignty, equality, human rights, as well as on a fair and equitable distribution of resources to meet the needs of peoples”.
The Conference saw the work of the Red Cross Red Crescent actively promoting lasting peace in this sense through its humanitarian work and the dissemination of its ideals.
This conceptual underpinning has stayed wit the IFRC ever since. Its current strategy notes that peace is one of the key humanitarian values which all National Societies and the IFRC are committed to promote. That promotion is not simply cognitive - or to increase knowledge and understanding - but also to influence behavioural change in the community by being the living example.
This was followed up by a Pledge made by the IFRC in 2003 on non-discrimination and respect for diversity. That Pledge, which was delivered to all governments and National Societies at the 28th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, highlighted the importance of youth in peer education and non-formal education to promote international friendship and understanding.
Many National Societies have made this point a key ingredient in their own national and regional Youth assemblies.
The point has been continually refined and kept up to date. For example, in 2007 at the 30th International Conference, the “Together for Humanity” declaration to which I have already referred spoke forcefully of the importance to intensify efforts to mobilise community respect for diversity and action against racism, discrimination, xenophobia, marginalization and other forms of exclusion.
It rightly underlined Youth as directly vulnerable targets of these societal scourges, but equally reemphasised the key role of Youth as agents of behavioural change. Hence, its firm call to empower Youth to do so.
Young volunteers and staff members are vital parts of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies operating worldwide.
The IFRC believes that it is trite to describe young people are “the future” without also acknowledging that they are the present. Young people have as much to bring to the table as adults do – if not more. As I have said, we all need to ensure that they have a meaningful and active say in decision-making processes and can contribute directly to Red Cross Red Crescent programmes and policies.
One way of addressing this need is to ensure that Youth are directly represented in governance and management where these decisions are taken. The IFRC amended its own Constitution recently to ensure that there would always be a representative of our Youth commission officially sitting in our Governing Board.
Red Cross Red Crescent focuses on youth, and in particular their empowerment, leadership and innovation. We recognise that this will require mindset and attitudinal change in some communities, and are currently developing a training module that will empower youth to take action in their community and influence behavioural change.
This module focuses on key behavioural qualities or skills, such as empathy, consensus building, non-violent problem solving, which will enable the Red Cross Red Crescent, through its youth volunteers and staff, to directly assume an educational role and build a global culture of non-violence where diversity is not only respected, but truly valued.
This is a manifestation of our determination to ensure that a slogan like that which we are all supporting is given active life and meaning everywhere in the world. In this increasingly uncertain world, and in the face of challenges such as urban violence, migration, increasing xenophobia and rising extremism, it is imperative that we harness young people’s enthusiasm and passion for change.
So we believe, as Save the Children does, that only through education – formal, non-formal and informal – can we equip young people with the insight they will need to understand and critically analyse the world, and become a truly formidable force for change within it. Our RCRC National Societies take up this challenge in every corner of the world, at any time of the day.
We need to learn from each other as we work towards this common objective. With that in mind, let me conclude by sharing some examples of what we do in different parts of the world.
• The Danish Red Cross runs a successful school service which focuses on raising 10 to 12 year old pupils’ awareness on humanitarian values in their every day context. The idea is to encourage the learners to consider how they themselves act in their everyday life - in school, at home, when playing with friends - and how they can change their views of other people.
• Since 1998, the Macedonian Red Cross runs a programme “Promotion of Human Values – Red Cross in Action” where young people are equipped to design and carry out small scale projects addressing the humanitarian needs of their local community. It has successfully promoted a culture of dialogue amongst youth between different ethnic groups, as a basis for an intercultural society and an active approach toward life through humanitarian values. The programme is now also carried out in Macedonia’s neighbouring countries of Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia and Croatia.
• The Uganda Red Cross Society, a leading humanitarian organization in its country, counts 80% of youth among its 200,000 members and volunteers. The young people are organized through youth structures in and out of school. Throughout the country, they participate in education for peace through the dissemination of the RCRC principles and international humanitarian law. In fact, peace education forms an integrated part of all humanitarian assistance programs brought in conflict-ridden Northern Uganda. The youth in two branches are also involved in the provision of psycho social support to traumatized returnee children now that peace has returned to the region.
• Another example in Africa is the Sierra Leone Red Cross. It uses drama, songs and marches trained peer educators to launch sensitization campaigns within communities large and small and disseminate humanitarian values and respect for diversity to a population ravaged by unspeakable horror in recent years.
• In the Americas, the Colombian Red Cross has developed a successful programme called PACO, standing for “Peace, Action and Co-existence”. (PACO) was originally created by the Colombian Red Cross Youth as a peace education programme. PACO consists of training workshops and activities that help young people to avoid aggression with others, build communication, care for their environment, care for themselves. The programme is implemented in areas of conflict, disseminated amongst paramilitaries and guerrilla groups, works with indigenous populations and other minority groups and closely involves all sections of the community including parents and teachers.
This last example illustrates well how the Red Cross Red Crescent’s approach can bridge formal, non-formal and informal education, as PACO has been successfully implemented throughout Colombia at both school and after-school, and community levels.
We in the Red Cross Red Crescent very much value the action taken by Save the Children to launch this global debate on education for peace. We will make use of the strength of the debate and the suggestions it is bringing forward in our work in nations and local communities around the world, and look forward to finding new and productive partnerships with others.
The sharing of ideas and the building of such partnerships, with lasting benefit to peace itself, will be an enduring legacy of this important exercise.