AMED – The final declaration of the conference titled “Children in Conflict Resolution Processes”, held in Amed (Diyarbakır) on June 29 and organized by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party Children’s Commission, has been published. The declaration announced the decision to establish a “Truth Commission on Conflict and Children” as part of building a “child justice system” in the construction of a democratic society.

 

The conference aimed to discuss how children can participate in the process that followed Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” on February 27. It is also sought to identify tools for developing child-centred policies and emphasized the importance of placing children’s experiences and needs at the centre. 

 

The declaration noted that the conference addressed the violence children have been exposed to over the past 50 years of conflict, politically, socially, economically and in terms of gender. It also underlined that the conference opened the door to building peace and democratic society together with children. 

 

CHILDREN MUST PARTICIPATE IN THE PEACE PROCESS

 

The following decisions were included in the final declaration: 

 

“Children must be recognized as social and political agents in conflict resolution processes. Their collective memory, experiences, and needs should be regarded as an equal component of peace and democratic society. 

 

Peace and a democratic society cannot be built without centring children’s subjectivities, voices, wills, and needs within a ‘Third Way’ perspective on childhood. Children, the public and child-centre institutions must actively participate in dialogue and discussion processes, developing methods of joint thinking and action. 

 

Safe spaces and appropriate mechanisms must be created to ensure children’s participation in peace processes, provide opportunities for them to speak, and convey their demands to decision-makers. 

 

 

The last 50 years of conflict must be re-examined through a childhood perspective. The layers of violence children have endured must be documented, including violations of the right to life, physical violence, assimilation, forced displacement, disability, child labour, and impoverishment. 

 

Even after weapons fall silent, the psychological effects of war continue in children’s minds. Therefore, the memory of conflict experienced during childhood must be acknowledged and restorative work must be carried out. The demands of children who witnessed conflict and families who experienced loss must be prioritized. 

 

The conflicts have made all children in the country targets of violence. The truth behind the right to life violations of children like Ugur Kaymaz, Mehmet Uytun, Enes Ata, Nihat Kazanhan, Berkin Elvan, Ceylan Onkol, Eren Bulbul, and Rozerin Cukur, all ‘killed in the state’s lesson’, must be revealed. 

 

The culture of impunity institutionalized throughout years of conflict has become a mechanism that denies truth and prevents perpetrators from being punished. Ending this system is essential for building collective hope, ensuring restorative justice, and fostering the socialization of peace. 

 

Although punitive justice has largely failed in the country for years, the pursuit of justice by families of the disappeared has only grown stronger. Their expectations from restorative justice include a formal apology from the state, reopening time-barred cases, and holding perpetrators accountable. 

 

PEACE CURRICULUM 

 

Rebuilding children’s sense of hope and a fair world, shattered by war and conflict, requires recognizing their subjectivities, will, identities, beliefs, their whole beings, and enabling them to express themselves in their mother tongues. Therefore, legal guarantees for mother-tongue education are essential to peace and democratic society. 

 

Peace is not just a process of healing but also one of shared responsibility and reconstruction. A peace curriculum should be developed to ensure the experiences of war and conflict are not passed down to future generations across the country. 

 

Experiences of loss, grief, and social trauma can be addressed through organized collective struggles for justice and by strengthening social memory. All obstacles to the organization of peace and democratic society must be removed, and active spaces for dialogue and collaboration must be created between conflicting parties and those affected by the process. 

 

ROADMAP

 

The declaration also outlined the roadmap put forward by the DEM Party’s Children Commission: 

 

*To organize a conference in Istanbul to assess how children have been affected by long-term conflict and to identify avenues for their participation in peace processes. 

 

*To establish a ‘Truth Commission on Conflict and Children’ with the inclusion of institutions working with children, to uncover crimes committed against children over the past 50 years, including violations of the right to life, violence, assimilation, forced displacement, labor exploitation, and impoverishment. The findings of this commission are intended to contribute to the work of a parliamentary commission to be established in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). 

 

*To form a ‘Child Justice System Commission’ including civil society organizations working with children, in order to construct a child-centred justice system in the building of peace and democratic society. A workshop will be held in September to launch this commission, and its findings will contribute to democratic constitution-making efforts.

 

*To create a “Children in Conflict Resolution Commission” to study international experiences in child participation in peace processes, with the involvement of relevant civil society organizations.

 

The declaration added: “We are ready to take responsibility in building peace and democratic society against the poverty, deprivation, displacement, labour exploitation, disability, assimilation, and impunity policies faced by children during times of war and conflict. We know that ‘as long as the lights are on, the place of childhood is known.’ Our hope is that the light of peace being lit today will lead us to a democratic and free society together with children. Children, Peace, Freedom!”