Often the most useful way sometimes, it seems, the only way to overcome the enmity of previous generations is to enable the next generation, our young people, the future guardians of peace, to meet and interact in a secure atmosphere of trust. Seeds is producing a new crop of young people who form a significant network of future leaders who value communication over confrontation. This program was an enduring source of hope for His Majesty King Hussein and myself and those touched by the program. Education can impress upon young people the importance of resolving conflicts without violence, teach them the skills with which to do it, and to make their voices heard in issues that affect them. If we can bring to education for peace the same level of commitment and expertise that previous generations devoted to their military academies, we will be well on the way to achieving a more lasting security than war could ever provide.
Children can be a force for peace out of proportion to their years.
The dynamic and dedicated members of Colombia s Children s Movement for Peace , were the first children ever nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year for their inspiring efforts to overcome decades of internal strife and in meetings with them, I have found their idealism and optimism absolutely contagious. Movements like these demonstrate that peace can grow even out of soil made almost barren by conflict. We need new structures for peace and justice structures based on a fundamentally strengthened international legal order. To establish these, we can build on the past century's impressive array of global institutions and conventions to promote the supremacy of international and humanitarian law. These began with the UN Charter and the International Court of Justice, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions, and extend to the most recent, the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the ongoing efforts to establish the International Criminal Court.