|
 
 
|
|
COMMUNITY
CONFLICT IMPACT on CHILDREN
|
Community Conflict
Impact on Children (CCIC) was established in 1999 by people from the
two main traditions in Northern Ireland, some of who had been bereaved
as children in the Troubles and some who work with children and young
people and childrens charities. The key objectives were to establish
good information about the level and need among children and young people
affected by the Troubles in areas of high, medium and low violence,
and to empower participants (children, young people, community organisations
and voluntary organisations) to better identify and address the effects
of the Troubles on children and young people.
As part of this work CCIC carried out a series of in-depth focus groups
with children and young people, Catholic and Protestant and other
from various parts of Northern Ireland. These interviews provided a
variety of personal stories of children and young peoples experience
of the Troubles. The project has published a series of reports based
on these interviews so that voluntary and government agencies can begin
to take into an account the effects of the Troubles on children and
young people, and so that there is greater awareness of the issues and
the situation in which people continue to live.
International Programme on Best International Practice
This project was funded by the Community Relations Council and aimed
to focus on working with children and young people in violently divided
societies in order to:
-
Establish
dialogue between Northern Ireland and South African participants.
-
Produce
links that lead to future collaboration
-
Produce
presentations for Conferences in both Cape Town and Belfast.
-
Produce
a publication for use in training and education of professionals
in the field.
The programme
established a network of practitioners both within and between South
Africa and Northern Ireland, organised a four day colloquium and a
one day conference in South Africa and a seminar in Northern Ireland,
produced a set of published working papers, and a set of connections
between the Departments of Education in South Africa and Northern
Ireland. The papers from the colloquium were published as Working
with children and young people in violently divided societies
and is available from the Institute for Conflict Research.
Following the South African colloquium Kirsten Thomson, who had worked
with the Trauma Centre in Cape Town as a social worker, child therapist
and trainer spent a year working with ICR in Belfast. Her observations
and comparisons with South Africa have proved a valuable contribution
to work in Northern Ireland, and it is hoped that her experience of
Northern Ireland will be of similar value when she returns home to
South Africa.
Youthquest
2000 Survey: Joint work with the Joint Society for a Common Cause
CCIC worked in partnership with the Joint Society for a Common Cause
(JSCC), a cross-community youth group from the Greater Belfast and
Newtownabbey area, in carrying out the Youthquest
2000 survey of young people. The overall aim of the project was
to give a political voice to young people between the ages of 14-17
(inclusive) a group without a voice in elections and opinion
polls. The project was designed to give young people the chance to
explore and express their views and opinions on issues surrounding
the peace process and the Troubles as a whole.
The objectives of the project were to:
-
Give
young people a chance to express their beliefs and opinions on the
peace process and to gauge the effects of the troubles on their
lives;
- Improve understanding
of all young peoples values, beliefs and opinions in the wider
community;
-
Provide funding organisations information that will help them target
spending on young peoples expressed needs;
-
Provide
baseline information for future surveys of young people to build
on;
-
Build
on previous work of Community Conflict Impact on Children in understanding
the impact of the Troubles on children and young people.
A key feature of
the work was the involvement of young people in the design and implementation
of the questionnaire and survey. JSCC undertook the fieldwork and assisted
in the construction of the questionnaire, while CCIC designed the study,
directed the research and produced the analysis and final report. CCIC
also provided presentation and media training for the young people,
so that they could present the survey results, and conduct the media
launch of the report.
In general terms, the study has been a learning process for the young
people involved, developing skills in research, communication, presentation
and organisational capacities. Young people from JSCC presented the
findings of the survey at the launch of the Youthquest
2000 report in February 2000. Subsequently, the young people travelled
to present their findings to the Members of the European Parliament
in Brussels.
The Visit of Olara Otunnu and the Building the Future
Conference. June 2000
In late 1999, at Le Hague Appeal for Peace, Olara Otunnu, Special Representative
of the Secretary General and Under Secretary of the United Nations with
Special Responsibility for Children and Armed Conflict, accepted Marie
Smyths invitation to visit Northern Ireland.
Save the Children commissioned CCIC to organise the visit and following
many months of negotiations Mr Otunnu arrived in Northern Ireland in
June 2002. Whilst here Mr Otunnu met with politicians, policy makers,
heads of NGOs, and visited a number of local communities and schools.
He was also received by the Lord Mayor of Belfast and by the Speaker
at the Assembly.
Mr Otunnu was also the keynote speaker at the Building the Future conference.
CCIC co-ordinated the planning group for the event and delivered the
conference jointly with Save the Children. Half of the conferences
200 participants were young people and the international speakers from
South Africa, Kosova, and from the Children and Armed Conflict Unit
of the Childrens Law Centre at the University of Essex also made
a number of site visits to meet young people in a range of communities
across Northern Ireland. A report
on the site visits and the conference proceedings was published by CCIC.
His visit culminated in a report
to the United Nations General Assembly and an invitation by various
government ministers to return and support the work of attending to
childrens needs in the course of the peace process. The second
visit took place in December 2001.
In addition, Marie Smyth participated in an international
workshop in Florence, hosted by the Italian government, and organised
by Mr Otunnus office in the UN, which focused on ethical and methodological
issues in researching children and armed conflict. An international
network of researchers has been formed as a result of this workshop.
CCICs successor, the Institute for Conflict Research, is continuing
this work, by organising a second visit from Mr Otunnu in December 2001,
and by continuing research on young people affected by various aspects
of the Troubles.
|
