How Human Rights are Affected by Conflict By Lily Rose September 2015
How Human Rights are affected by Conflict By Lily Rose Have you ever wondered what life is like for someone less fortunate than you ? Have you ever put yourself in some one else’s shoes? If you haven’t, do it now…Imagine you are living near a war zone. You had a nice house, and you were quite well off, but now that the war is getting closer and closer to your village, you have lost almost everything. You have a child, she's 7, she should be in school, but because of the war, she can't go. Then one night there is an attack on your village, and you have to flee your country, you take with you your child and a blanket. Imagine now that you are penniless, homeless, and scared ….you are a refugee.
Conflict starts when people have different points of view, values and beliefs. When their points of view are not heard, they become angry and irrational, and try to make themselves heard through violence. There are many consequences humans face in war, but there is one we all suffer from … loss; the loss of normal everyday rights like the right to shelter, or the right to education. We lose our families, our homes, and sometimes our lives . These are just some of the many ways in which our rights as humans are challenged by war. If someone asked me where conflict is in the world to day, I would tell him or her that conflict is everywhere. It can be in homes, it can be in communities, and it can be in countries. Now of course not all this conflict is on the same scale, some is much more severe than others, but it all is severe on its own scale.
UNICEF, Lahza 2 Project, Lebanon, 2014
The way we are affected by war differs from person to person, but children are always the most vulnerable. Until they are more independent, a parent or guardian would usually look after a child, but in a war zone, children are often separated from their families, injured, orphaned, or even killed. They lose their sense of belonging, and they are mentally and physically traumatised. Men of course have to fight in war, and women are often trafficked and abused. I asked Vivien Maidaborn, the Executive Director of Unicef New Zealand, ‘What are the main consequences of war?' She replied that ”the safe environment for families disappears. People’s jobs disappear, their opportunity to be educated disappears. Children’s opportunity to play disappears. So what happens is that a rich life experience gets smaller and smaller until all you can do is find shelter, and stay as safe as possible. The main consequence is that normal life ceases to exist’. At the present time, there is the biggest human migration going on since World War 2. This is due to economic, political and social crises, but it is in particular the Syrian conflict that has caused millions of people to seek refuge in foreign countries.
UNICEF, Macedonia, 2015
Some background on the Syrian conflict: Syria is a country in the Middle East. Ever since World War 2, there has been a lot of political conflict in the country. For 40 years, President Bashar al-Assad and his family have run the country. He and his family were the leaders of a strict regime. But because the economy was working and the country was reasonably stable, and the government picked off any objectors, nobody dared to speak up. Since the start of the 21st century, a lot of countries around Syria have been at war or had revolutions, but nobody thought that it would affect or spread to Syria. However, from 2005 to 2011, there was a terrible drought there. The farmers couldn't make a profit because their crops were drying up. They had no water and no food so they had to move to the cities.
But there wasn't enough room in the cities for all these extra people, so systems began to break down. There weren’t enough resources for everyone, so people started to suffer. The people also began to think twice about their rights because they saw the countries around them going through social change. A group of teenage boys from wealthy families got together and formed a protest. They sprayed the words “ the people want to topple the regime'' on a wall. This was a phrase used as a protest in countries like Egypt. A group of secret police caught the boys and tortured them. Their families were distraught, and so were the people of Syria. They started to protest for their rights, and this time, the government couldn't stop the masses. The president commanded the military to kill the protesters in the city. After this display of violence, protests spread around the country. The protests followed the path of the drought where the people were so desperate. As the civil war got worse, people decided it was no longer safe in Syria and began to leave to take refuge in the neighboring countries. The country Lebanon is on the West side of the Syrian border. Lebanon has taken 1.2 million Syrian refugees since 2011. The fighting has got worse and worse since then, and the situation has elevated extremely. (Syrian conflict cartoon and the Guardian newspaper)
''There are many terrible things that happen to children in war…They range from hunger…. When an adult is hungry, it’s terrible, but when a child is hungry, their brains don’t develop and their brains don’t grow. It’s critical that we always look after the next generation. The healthier those children are, the more their brains can develop, the more their bodies can grow, then the safer our world will be when they are adults'' -Vivien Maidaborn, Executive Director of Zealand
UNICEF New
'"Millions of children inside Syria and across the region are witnessing their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict. We must rescue them from the brink, for their sake and for the sake of Syria in future generations." - Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director Families lose everything that holds their family life together, such as their homes, their savings, their friendships and their culture. When they arrive in a new country, they have to start completely anew in all these areas. They also often struggle to hold on to their culture in their new surroundings.
When the refugees arrived in Lebanon, men were not allowed to work. This was because the citizens of the country were worried that the refugees would take their jobs. Because the men couldn't work, the women and girls did. They had to work in the fields before breakfast, then the girls would go to school in a tent, and the mother would carry on working to earn enough money to pay rent for their tent. But this made the women and girls very tired, so the men felt guilty and there was a reproachful feeling in the air. This is an example of how family and traditional culture breaks down in times of conflict.
UNICEF, Macedonia, 2015
Using Lucid Chart, I created a flowchart to represent the incredible contrast between the life of a family before they became refugees and after.
Shelter, water, food, air, clothing, and sleep are the essential building blocks at the base of a pyramid of human needs. War shatters the pyramid of needs that is the basic foundation for life.
www.google.com This pyramid is stable and safe, but if the pyramid has even one loose brick in the foundations, it falls down. War is the most severe crack possible in the pyramid. No one can survive for long without the main physiological needs of sleep, water or food.
When you are all alone in a warzone, you only have to find food, shelter and water for yourself, and that is hard enough. But if you have children, you need to find all those things in an even higher quantity, while also trying to keep them safe. If you are a refugee, you are no longer a unique individual, you are just another face in a crowd of terrified people. Your human rights are no longer protected, and looking after your children becomes an incredible struggle. I decided to look further into the challenges people face as a consequence of war, so I interviewed Cynthia Dolakh, who is an 18-year-old refugee from Syria who is now living in Wellington in New Zealand. She had a normal, happy life before the war. She was receiving an excellent education and lived a comfortable and affluent life in an apartment in town. She lost people she knew and cared for, and her apartment building was bombed. She could no longer go to school, and it was no longer safe in her hometown, so they left Syria. Her family spent the equivalent of a year’s salary to drive for three days in a taxi to Turkey, and then from there, flew to China and on to New Zealand. It was a long and dangerous journey, and having to leave her relatives behind in such bad circumstances was very traumatic. Cynthia’s parents are still in Syria and living in very dangerous conditions, which of course is very distressing for her. I learned that Cynthia's story is typical of many other refugee experiences, from Amanda Colder of the Refugee Family Re-Unification Trust, and I was inspired to illustrate a story of a refugee. It's roughly based on Cynthia’s experience, and the purpose is to show the challenges a refugee faces.
Conclusion Even though the state of the world and the huge numbers of refugees can seem overwhelming, there are many charites and organisations doing their best to help people in war zones or in crisis. UNICEF is an organisation that was formed by the United Nations after World War II. It was created because children were suffering from the consequences of war after World War II. The United Nations came up with a convention called the Convention of the Rights of the Child and its purpose was to protect children's rights. Most of the countries of the world signed the convention and made it a legal framework. UNICEF was created to enact the convention and to help children in need all around the world.
Lahza 2. A Zakira and UNICEF Project
“We take our job very seriously in speaking for them, even here in New Zealand� -Vivien Maidborn, Executive Director of UNICEF New Zealand There are also many other organisations and charities that protect and help people, and work to bring about change, like World Vision, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and The Save the Children Fund.
UNICEF, Macedonia, 2015
War is out there, and we all know that. But what we don't realise is that we can change that. What is the use of violence? Why can't we all just get along? And if we are angry at another country, why can't we just talk about it and resolve our differences in a more civilized way? We make these problems, so we CAN fix them. Does killing have a benefit? No. Do we really want to do this? Or are we just scared that if we don't attack, they will? Our society is twisted and rigid because we don't realise that we are and will always be just people. So let's stop the war, and start with peace.
http://www.wilderdom.com/games/PeaceEducationExperienti alActivities.html
Bibliography & Sources Books Jansen, Adrienne (2000). Alsi’s story. Wellington: New Zealand Learning Media Limited. Garland, Sarah (2015). Azzi in Between. London: Frances Lincoln. Robinson, Anthony (Author), Young, Annemarie (Author), Allan, June (Illustrator) (2011). Mohammed's Journey (A Refugee Diary). UK: Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd. Robinson, Anthony (Author), Young, Annemarie (Author), Allan, June (Illustrator) (2010). Hamzat's Journey: A Refugee Diary. UK: Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd. UNICEF Lebanon (2014). Lahza 2. UNICEF. Newspapers Reuters. “Marauding Migrants Described as Threat to EU.” Dominion Post. 02/09/2015. The Times. “Migrant Mayhem Intensifies.” Dominion Post. 03/09/2015. Page 1. Editorial. “Refugee Move welcome but not Enough” Dominion Post. 08/09/2015. Page A6. Beaglehole, Ann. “New Zealand has long had a mixed record on refugees” Dominion Post. 03/09/2015. Page A7. Editorial. “NZ duty-bound to help refugees.” Dominion Post. 03/09/2015. Telegraph Group. “EC chief floats refugee bounty plan.” Dominion Post. 08/09/2015. Page B1.
Websites Syria http://www.upworthy.com/trying-to-follow-what-is-going-on-in-syria-and-why-thiscomic-will-get-you-there-in-5-minutes http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-todrought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=0
Refugees Zakira one-minute videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuN7t8nV8p4bSfpZFLy7ehCQBbL7Grg3B Syria refugee crisis: the reality of life in Lebanon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-2UT3817TA
Syrian refugees desperate to leave Lebanon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EshdEISLlLY Refugee crisis: hundreds begin march to Austria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Uk5TJpEs8 https://www.unicef.org.nz/news/2015/september-2015/children-of-syria-deservemore-than-symbolic-gestures-from-the-international-community http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/paulhenry/donor-fatigue-threatens-efforts-in-syria2015090310#axzz3lnYqRnRy Lost Childhoods of Syria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67eZIQ0gkn4 Inside the refugee camps: "These were girls like me" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFiPGSZnFD8
Works of Art Non-Violence, Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, United Nations, NYC Interviews Vivien Maidaborn, Queen Margaret College, Executive Director UNICEF NZ. Thomas Huneke, Queen Margaret College, NZ Ministry of Justice. Ms Wood, Queen Margaret College, Humanities Teacher. Amanda Colder, Queen Margaret College, Family Unification Trust. Cynthia Dolkakh, Te Aro, Wellington, Syrian refugee. Rick Burnett, Skype interview from London, Grandfather. Helen Burnett, Skype interview from London, Grandmother.