Expectations from the Children’s Summit
By Serafin A. Arviola, Jr.

A Children’s Summit provides a venue for children and the youth to come together, share their experiences, and identify strengths and weaknesses, in order to appreciate their role in promoting a peaceful, just and sustainable world order. It is a multidisciplinary and value-explicit process, whereby children are led to assess their contributions in solving problems of direct and indirect violence through voluntary and sustained actions.

A Children’s Summit advocates real, practical meaning and benefits of non-violence in the daily life. It makes children aware of the problems of peace and non-violence, and develops a more comprehensive understanding of the root causes of physical and structural violence in the world today. It motivates children to work for the most suitable solution through concrete projects and helps review the process once the desired result or outcome is achieved.

A Children’s Summit encourages children to engage in the development of commonly-shared future. It provides them an opportunity to speak out and participate in the formulation of global and national agenda and action plans so that world leaders could understand their stand on issues affecting them. These agenda and action plans shall be the basis of international laws, declarations and treaties for peace promotion, human rights protection and care for the environment.

A Children’s Summit continues to motivate children to reach the highest aspirations in life, by putting into action and in daily living the Peace Manifesto 2000 - the children as a catalyst for change in preserving life and rejection of non-violence as a weapon of peace-building. The preservation of environment, an advocacy to social equality and democratic participation, should be the basis of engagement in the Summit through creative means of interaction. Sharing and listening are important process of dialogue to attain solidarity and harmonious relationship with children around the world. In the end, a Children’s Summit will be a success if children are empowered towards peaceful development as the next generation of leaders who will recreate reality and history.

Links:
UNICEF: Special Session on Children

Serafin A. Arviola, Jr. is National Youth Coordinator of UNESCO-ASPnet and the Philippine Youth Peace Advocates. He was the convenor of the third National Conference of Students and Youth Leaders (Manila, Philippines, 15 to 20 February 2002). With the theme “Youth Making a Difference towards a Culture of Peace”, 150 children, youth leaders and organizers celebrated the UN International Decade for Peace for the Children of the World. This article is based from a workshop held during the Conference, which was supported by UNESCO-Philippines.