How Kids can use Computers for Peace

By Andrew Friedman

CyberPeace initiated a small pilot program in three high schools in 1997 one Jewish-Israeli, one Palestinian, and one Arab-Israeli. The students corresponded regularly for several months.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian or American, soccer is soccer, Titanic is Titanic. These are the kinds of things I think young people should be talking about: friends, hobbies, sports, food, movies, families, whatever, - anything that might show them how much they really do have in common.

I know they have much in common, because I have many friends, Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, that I’ve made at the Seeds of Peace camp:

CyberPeace donated a computer lab to Seeds of Peace this summer where campers learned how to use the Internet as a tool for keeping in touch, because the Internet is fast becoming their most vital channel of communication. It’s a lifeline in times of trouble, often their only direct connection to each other and the only means of preserving friendships forged at camp. Everyday I go online to check my e-mail, Sometimes an e-mail is the difference between hope and despair:

My friend Adham is a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank. He met Shira, an Israeli, at SOP in 1997 and they’ve been close friends ever since. When his town was closed off after an explosion in Jerusalem, he wrote to her:

Shira wrote a poem recently about the role her e-mail plays in her life:

Another Jordanian friend (Saad) of mine wrote in to the rest of the Seeds of Peace family:

I want to expand the possibilities of these friendships. I want to integrate dialogue into school curricula throughout the Middle East, to foster meaningful interaction through cooperative and collaborative projects. I see Arabs and Israelis working together on joint school assignments, researching information together, and combining their ideas to produce projects that represent both an Israeli and an Arab perspective. I see all this happening in a flourishing virtual community, where coexistence is the way of life.

And the best part is, that’s all possible today.

CyberPeace
c/o Andrew Friedman
857 Leonard Road
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Tel: 310-471-7651 Fax: 310-471-8287
E-mail: info@cyberpeace.org
Website: http://www.cyberpeace.org
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Recirculated by
PEACE - A Mid-East Dialog Group
Ami Isseroff: ami_iss@netvision.net.il
Ameen Hannoun ash74@geocities.com
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I’d like to tell you about one of the most significant events in the history of our planet: one that will continue to shape the community of nations that make up our world for the next century. I believe that this event will be used as the standard by which civilized nations measure each other’s conduct and whether or not they will engage in harmonious relationships - economic, cultural, athletic and so on. It is also an event that occurred with hardly anyone noticing !

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child or the CRC (and its 54 Articles) is the latest tool created by the world community to advance the notion of human rights for the world’s most vulnerable citizens. Its development began in 1924 in the League of Nations and was worked on extensively from 1979: “The Year of the Child”, to its presentation in the UN a decade later in 1989.

Introduced formally at the World Summit for Children in New York in 1990 (the largest gathering of world leaders to that point), this new document parallels the impact of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights just after World War II. It represents the zenith of our world’s efforts to guarantee children’s healthy survival, development, education, health care, and freedom from physical, mental and sexual abuse or exploitation, and their right to participate meaningfully in their own destiny. What a noble concept when read and understood in its entirety. Its Articles support and strengthen the family as the primary environment where these freedoms are given birth and fostered.

In 1948, no one could envision how these types of UN treaties would have an impact on the global community of nations but their influence has been profound. Now, all nations have an awareness of human rights violations, and nations with more civil and progressive social systems can apply pressure on their neighbors to respect these individual rights and freedoms (see freethechildren.org and Henry Helps Home Page for Children’s Rights).

The world has moved forward in the last century and the area of human rights is one of our most important steps. At least now there are international standards, and pressure can be applied to nations that do not live up to these principles. What makes this treaty so incredible is that over 190 nations on the planet have both signed and ratified the CRC: Almost the entire world has agreed on how we wish to treat our most precious resource, only two have not ! This makes the document the most widely agreed upon issue in the history of humanity. Of the two nations who have not ratified the document, Somalia has completely ignored the debate. The other country has signed, but the ratification process, the real accountability built into the United Nation’s Conventions, has been delayed politically. You may be dismayed to find that the United States is the other nation. It is my understanding that conservative senators such as Jesse Helms and others have blocked its acceptance.

Thus, only two countries, Somalia and the US, have not ratified this noble treaty and allowed themselves to be judged in the eyes of their peers. In the US, organizations such as the Albert Schweitzer Foundation, the American Bar Association, the American Federation of Teachers, Amnesty International, Child Welfare League of America, are just a very small part of a long list of supporters. This document is an international framework for the cooperation of the world community of nations, which is still largely determined by the industrialized countries of the planet. And though it may no doubt seem preposterous to some that international financial agreements and business transactions influence the Rights of the Child, UNICEF’s view is that
" this is not nearly so preposterous as watching millions of children pay with the loss of their rights to health, education and normal physical and mental development ... " (unicef.org 1998, on the Internet).

The US Committee for UNICEF has up-to-date information and education materials to support these activities and they are eager to work with you or your community on this issue. For further details or assistance, please contact the US Committee for UNICEF at 202-296-4242, and fax at 202-296-4060, (or by e-mail at:oppa@unicefusa.org).

All this certainly has relevance for those of us who desire to leave the world a better place for our children. Please read the document and understand for yourself why so many politically, spiritually and economically diverse nations in the world have been able to agree upon one thing - a set of standards about how we wish to treat our children. After seeing how it is that children can be mistreated, abused, and sexually exploited in my own country, I am convinced that awareness and use of the treaty is one solution, one ray of light in the darkness which often seems to surround me. Ignorance can be overcome with knowledge. Effective and ethical use of knowledge has transformed our world and will continue to do so for those enlightened enough to take up the challenge. I have dedicated myself to sharing the knowledge of the Convention with all those whom I meet and I thank the editors of HORIZON, for publishing my article.

I am available by e-mail at: mitch24@sprynet.com.

Michael (Sweden)

" Children have a tremendous capacity for empathy and tolerance, the necessary attributes of a peace-builder. However, these capacities are not always nurtured sufficiently, especially in today's world, plagued by daily demonstrations of violence in the news and entertainment media. It is imperative that children be given every opportunity to develop the skills and attitudes of peace-builders and a sense of social responsibility and justice.

This is especially crucial in countries experiencing armed conflict or struggling to overcome the devastating and crippling effects of war, but also in countries where children may not be aware of the realities and devastation caused by conflict and wars that are often glamorized on the TV screen.

Quality children's literature has the potential of fostering peace-building skills and attitudes in children. It is, however, often the case that commercial interests overshadow the interests of the youngest, and the most vulnerable of the society. "

Irma Ghosn presents her paper on the benefits and power of literature as a change agent, offering basic criteria for distinguishing quality from commercially motivated products, and she suggests some ways in which adults can promote quality literature over the ever-increasing power of the violent electronic media.

Irma Ghosn of Lebanon, is a member of the IPRA Culture and Communications Commission. The Convener of this Commission, Ada Aharoni, invited her to present the above paper at the "Ipra General Conference" in Durban, South Africa (1998). She is also a member of the Steering Committee for the LAU Center for Peace and Justice Education, and a recipient of the 1998 Mary Finocchiaro Award for Excellence in Development of Pedagogical Materials from TESOL for 'Caring Kids' series set in the M-Eastern context and aiming to foster empathy, tolerance, conflict resolution skills, environmental awareness, etc. through children's stories.

Irma K. Ghosn
Lebanese American University, Byblos
E-mail: ighosn@byblos.lau.edu.lb