Secondary Conflict Resolution Activities

Learning objectives:

• To know that all children and young people have a right to be safe and that the responsibility for this right is a shared one
• To identify which countries are affected by conflict
• To understand how conflict undermines the right to be safe and also impacts on other rights looking at Palestine and Israel
• To recognise that there are similarities and difference in what peace means to different groups of people
• To undertake a small piece of research into one country to find out how conflict affects it and make a short presentation to peers
• To understand the role of the media and the power it has in promoting peace by the way it reports on conflict situations
• To reflect on what they can do as individuals to promote peace.

Activities

1. Class discuss: What does it means to be and feel safe? (At home, in school and local community). Who or what can prevent children and young people from being safe? Who should keep you safe? Is there anything you can do to keep safe? Keep others safe? Make point that UN Convention on the Right of the Child includes a number of protection rights which include: articles 2, 16, 19, 22, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39 and 40. Whose responsibility is it to uphold these rights?
2. In groups, pupils compile a list of the countries in the world they know to be at war. Using the map on the CD Rom First News Campaign Conflict Children, compare the students’ list with those identified by DFID and Save the Children. Pupils find Israel and Palestine on the map. Use power point to show images past and present of conflict (reduce no of slides + some Israel conflict slides + jt. School/peace group
3. Read out two testimonies from Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak, one from each country. Distribute copies of these testimonies to class. What do they notice about how the two young people describe their experiences? In pairs, pupils identify the similarities and differences in what being safe means to these two young people. They could underline the differences in one colour and similarities in another. How does what they have heard from the young people here compare with what they have heard about these two countries in the news?
4. Use ‘The Wall’ powerpoint to discuss whether the wall is a barrier necessary to create peace or a barrier to peace?
5. Activity 7.4 Peace Journalism from  Making Sense of World Conflicts by Cathy Midwinter Pg 99 Oxfam using recent headlines which describe the current conflict situation between Israel and Palestine.

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