CO-Peace Campaign - Join Us !!

Dear Colleagues,

It is our delight and honor to share with you the CO-PEACE Statement on Children and Armed Conflict drafted by our esteemed colleague, Mary Racelis (See below or click here). The Statement is the result of extensive consultations she undertook with a like-minded Core Group of X-UNICEF colleagues. Views of our friends and partners in the humanitarian sphere and civil society organizations were also sought.

The Statement is a call for coordinated joint action with civil society organizations towards creating and maintaining effective Corridors of Peace to shelter and save children caught in armed conflict and give them the opportunity to survive and lead a productive life. We former UNICEF workers know how to do it, just as we did it with Jim Grant.

Given your unrelenting commitment and dedication to the protection of children and mitigation of their sufferings from the ravages of armed conflict, further exacerbated by COVID-19, you can play a dynamic role in ending this obscene carnage. We appeal to you to join this laudable effort by committing your special expertise and experience to make the Corridors for Peace the much-awaited response needed to provide the future generation their basic rights to survival, protection. development and participation. Having been UNICEF staff members, we are all already committed to our children’s right to grow in a safe and healthy environment so as to become the able leaders of tomorrow.

Please confirm your commitment, initially simply in principle (Say Yes!), to join the CO-PEACE Campaign and participate actively with us and civil society. Click here to add your name to the campaign.

Together we can make Corridors of Peace the reality of a new movement to end the tragedy of Children caught in Armed Conflict.

Later, you may also want to consider further involvement. Inspired by inputs from many of you we have drafted a tentative action plan to take the campaign forward effectively and efficiently. This too will be shared with you soon.

We look forward to hearing from you at the e-mail addresses below. Warm regards.

Sincerely,

Baquer Namazi 
<jacobdavid278@gmail.com 

David S.Bassiouni

 <corridorsforpeace@gmail.com>

APPEAL TO INTERNATIONAL DONOR COMMUNITY

We are a group of active retired UNICEF staff who have been involved directly and indirectly in CHILDREN AS ZONES OF PEACE. This is a visionary initiative that saves lives in conflict-afflicted countries. Deeply disturbed by the situation of children in Syria and Yemen, currently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, we believe there is an urgent need to activate this concept for crucial child life-saving services

Formulated by the late Swedish humanitarian, Nils Thedin, Children as Zones of Peace was successfully implemented in Afghanistan, El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan, and Uganda among other conflict-affected countries under the inspiring leadership of UNICEF’s late Executive Director, James P. Grant. Through intense negotiations involving many partners, he extracted the warring parties’ agreement to stop the fighting for a specified period of time and allow life-saving interventions to reach children. Many of us participated in that process.

The United Nations Secretary-General warned of “death sentences” for Syria and Yemen at an international donor conference that yielded less than half the funds needed to address these dire humanitarian tragedies. It is clear that the devastating impact of widespread famine, warfare and now the COVID-19 pandemic falls most disastrously on children.

The world today stands at a remarkable moment in time. In recent weeks the Security Council unanimously adopted a United Kingdom proposal calling for a ceasefire in conflict countries to allow vaccinations against COVID-19. In her remarks following the Council’s adoption of the resolution, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom went on to suggest broadening the requisite ceasefire to allow vaccination of children against the broad range of childhood diseases.

The Security Council’s resolution builds on the earlier call by the Secretary General for a global ceasefire during this challenging period of world-wide COVID-generated disaster. The intensified emergency comes not only from the illness and death of those infected, but also from the disruption of routine vaccination for children, the food, water and adequate housing, the interruption of schooling, and the abuse of children confined in domestic lockdowns.

We appreciate that the conflicts in Syria and Yemen are complex and involve several influential external and domestic actors. The Security Council‘s recent call for a ceasefire in conflict countries provides an opportunity for humanitarian leaders in close coordination with the UN Special Envoys for Syria Geir Pedersen and for Yemen Martin Griffiths along with other partners to press for concrete actions to reach children on many fronts. By utilizing vaccinations as an opening wedge for actions on schooling and child protection, the likelihood of reaching children increases.

While “ceasefire” is usually the term highlighted in such situations, our UNICEF experience shows that a humanitarian child-focused framing rather than the political one opens a window into the cessation of hostilities. The concept, Children as Zones of Peace, has been formulated differently in different situations, “Days of Tranquility,” “Corridors of Peace,” “Bubbles of Child Protection” or “There is no enemy child.” The result has been a temporary cessation of hostilities to allow crucial humanitarian services saving countless children’s lives

To assist this humanitarian effort and based on our long years of practical experience, we have prepared a package of three major programmatic interventions that allow for expeditiously, effectively, and efficiently implemented actions. This program (attached) promotes an awareness-creation campaign and approaches to strengthening people- driven initiatives toward addressing the crisis imploding among their children and families

Beyond Syria and Yemen, we hope that donors, international and national NGOs, governments, the private sector, scientists, and other committed partners will seize this unique COVID-related moment of global solidarity to benefit all the world’s children.

We stand ready and willing to offer voluntary advisory support drawing on our many years of experience in UNICEF serving the needs of children caught in warfare.

For children,

Signatures

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