YouSaid · the spoken record

Violeta

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17
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2023-07-05
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2023-07-05
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un-security-council

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  1. “Because a country that does not allow its children, adolescents and young people to work on peacebuilding and peace processes is a country that condemns itself to a future at war.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  2. “We reiterate that, despite the fact that a peace agreement has already been signed in Colombia and that Colombia is seen as a post-conflict country, nothing could be further from the truth, because the conflict is still ongoing in Colombia, and it continues to affect communities. Establishing and maintaining peace is not the responsibility of a single group of people only. It is everyone’s responsibility. And peace is not established merely by signing a paper with certain groups and then being done with it. Peace must be established throughout a country’s territory. Peace is maintained by all of us, and it is necessary that we all work for it. It is also very important to work from the foundational stages — childhood, adolescence and youth.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  3. “There were no round- table discussions in remote and rural areas, and the process was not integral or representative — and that is what we are asking — for the future representation to be fair and for our voices to be fully taken into account — and not merely for the purposes of filling a role. Furthermore, we call for the participation of young people, humanitarian organizations, victims, ethnic peoples, young women and people from the LGBTIQ+ community, as well as representatives of the military, police and intelligence agencies. The normalization of violence, the conflict and the resulting consequences we face are the result of many years of war.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  4. “As a final recommendation, we call on the Security Council and its member States to be guarantors of compliance with the peace agreements signed in 2016 and to continue generating possible solutions to the armed conflict that has been resurging in our national territory. We propose the creation of a commission that has knowledge of security and peace issues and is committed to defending human rights and the social rule of law. Such a commission should support possible peace negotiations and ensure the participation of children in the current and future processes, because although previous processes included some participation by children, that participation was neither integral nor fully representative.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  5. “That work can be facilitated through compliance with the guidelines of the Safe Schools Declaration, which, even though it has already been signed by Colombia, is something that needs to be monitored and implemented throughout the country’s territory. It may have already been signed, but how is it working? We also call for monitoring the recommendations of the Colombia’s Truth Commission on the restructuring of the rights to the education of children and young people in the areas affected by the armed conflict. As a fifth recommendation, we want to guarantee the presence of the State in terms of its focus on children and young people’s integral development and peace education in rural areas. That will enable them to develop life plans in peace, outside of the conflict, and ensure that State presence is not for defence purposes only.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  6. “As a third recommendation, we recommend strongly condemning the sexual violence committed against children and adolescents during the conflict and taking immediate measures to prevent such violence, as well as to provide redress to the victims quickly through both physical and mental health services, in addition to legal procedures. As a fourth recommendation, we call for taking the necessary reforms to guarantee coverage, access, quality, permanence and relevance in education, especially in rural and remote areas, enabling children to pursue life projects far from the realm of armed confrontation and illegal acts.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  7. “But we are not recognized for our most important role, that is, as agents of change. As a second recommendation, we call for a restructuring of my country’s vision of security in order to prevent future violence against young people, such as the violence that occurred during Colombia’s great social upheaval and in the context of the extrajudicial executions and the “false positives” scandal. To do that, it is necessary to provide information to both legal and illegal groups in the conflict in order to enable them to fully respect international humanitarian law. We also call for the release and restitution of rights of the victims and their families, as well as the release of the young people imprisoned during those events. Basically, we call for the political prisoners to be released.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  8. “As a first recommendation, it is necessary to condemn and prevent recruitment, as well as to free children and young people who are in the ranks of any armed groups, in order to prevent the continued use of children, young people and adolescents in war, including those from Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, refugee and migrant communities. In that regard, we call for the funding and swift implementation of efforts aimed at re-establishing the rights of children and young people who are former members of those groups in a comprehensive manner. Moreover, children and young people belonging to those groups must be recognized both as victims of conflict and as agents of change and peacebuilding, because we are usually recognized in two ways: as victims and as conflict multipliers — war machines.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  9. “Secondly, most adults do not know how to work with children and adolescents; neither do they have the methodologies or the tools to do so. They do not know how to reach those communities. And finally, what I think may be the most important result of the project is that nearly 95 per cent of the people surveyed are interested in working for peace. In other words, there really is a great interest — people truly want to do this — and that is why we should invest in that kind of process. As I approach the end of my briefing, I will continue by making recommendations. And there are a lot of recommendations, given that such a long history of conflict has shown and taught us what works and what does not.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  10. “Why is that? Basically, it is for the following reasons. First, children have the right to freely express their opinions and are capable of speaking on these issues. Secondly, sharing views increases the likelihood of building peace. Thirdly, in that process, children can learn information and skills that they can share with their families and communities. In addition to that, we also asked about the factors that usually hinder children and adolescents’ participation in peace processes, and we found that there two main reasons. First, adults think that children, adolescents and young people are not mature enough to contribute to the conversation about peacebuilding and peace agreements, and for that reason they do not invest in their participation.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  11. “The statistics show that there were 18 incidents of forced recruitment, leaving approximately 36 victims; 17 incidents of forced displacement, leaving approximately 1,283 victims; and 15 attacks on and occupations of schools, leaving approximately 1,126 child and adolescent victims. However, most of these injuries could be prevented in future if children, adolescents and youth had the opportunity to participate in peacebuilding processes. Between September and February, through a project supported by Save the Children, studies and surveys were carried out with children, adolescents and young people in different countries that once had some kind of internal armed conflict, including Colombia, Yemen, the Philippines, Mali and Nigeria. Almost all the people surveyed believe that children should be involved in peacebuilding processes.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  12. “According to figures documented by the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition, as of 2019, more than 3 million children, adolescents and young people were victims of the conflict, either by recruitment, forced disappearance, kidnapping, displacement, murder or violence. More updated figures show us that the war in Colombia is still ongoing. In the first quarter of the year, according to official figures from the Coalición contra la vinculación de niñas, niños y jóvenes al conflicto armado en Colombia — the coalition against the involvement of children and adolescents in the armed conflict in Colombia — there have been at least 4,583 child and adolescent victims.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  13. “Those young people affirmed their strength, resistance and yearning for a dignified life through shouts and chants as they led a great social demonstration in 2020 and 2021 to express a vision of justice and safety from the war that had stigmatized them, silenced them, kidnapped them or exterminated them physically and politically. Something that is also very striking about this vision is that it is also present in the dynamic of the territories and their inhabitants, where the spouse or child of a family member could easily be one of the 6,402 victims of extrajudicial executions or false positives, according to figures released by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in 2021. It is impossible to make an exact calculation of the number of victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, but it is possible to make approximations.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  14. “And just like in the countryside, after a while, the chairs start emptying, because in cities there is another type of recruitment — by gangs. It becomes commonplace to see classmates lying dead on the sidewalk, and just like in the countryside, there are clashes near recreational areas, schools, parks and hospitals. And often the scarcity of resources, poor educational methodologies, lack of opportunities, school dropouts and violent dynamics of the environment become translated into a great non-conformity in young people and adolescents who want to build a life free and far from violence.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  15. “These young people pack their dreams in a suitcase and leave their roots, their dreams and their ancestors behind in their territories of origin. Nor is it easy to suffer harassment or physical or verbal attacks for being a girl, for having different tastes, for having a different skin colour, for speaking differently or having different customs. On the other hand, violence in cities, while somewhat different, is just as significant. Living in remote, stigmatized or hidden areas of the cities is not easy either. The existence of armed groups or gangs undoubtedly limits the life and development of adolescents and young people living in these areas, because there is a constant fear of crossing an invisible barrier without realizing it, or of being attacked or threatened for looking this way or that.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  16. “We live with the constant fear, when going out to play with a ball in a park or an open space, that we might step on a mine or get caught in the middle of a confrontation. That is very powerful. It is also not easy to go to school and have to be alert all the time because there may be more clashes, and you may be affected, or because an armed group may arrive at your school and recruit some of your classmates. It is also not easy to see how the physical structure of schools is deteriorating day by day thanks to clashes, or how the educational equipment, which is already scarce and not very efficient, has also been compromised. And it is not easy to see how, as the days go by, the chairs in the classrooms emptying as children and adolescents are recruited, killed or displaced, or have to go to a city to look for better opportunities.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source

  17. “Hello, I am Violeta, and I take the floor on behalf of all the boys, girls, adolescents and young people who live in Colombia. I am a female adolescent, which we celebrate, because in most forums, including this one, representation is usually by adult males. Talking about conflict, war and peace in a country such as Colombia is basically talking about the entire history of the country. The armed conflict in Colombia has left millions of victims throughout the country, with the people living in the countryside being the most affected. Being a child, adolescent or young person living in the Colombian countryside, belonging to Afro- Colombian Indigenous communities, being a refugee or migrant, or simply belonging to the LGBTIQ+ community, is not easy.”

    2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366 (2023) · source