May 31, 2005

Dr Leo Semashko

About the beginning of Global Civil Movement "MAKING CHILDREN's PRIORITY"

 APPEAL

Dear friends and colleagues, parents and caregivers of children!

I would like to congratulate you o­n the International Day of Children Protection, June 1, but I can not, because this day remains hypocritical and bitter. It is important that o­nce a year society highlights the importance and necessity of child protection but at the same time it is outrageous that nothing is done of practical change. The world shudders at the incessant reports of disaster and violence against children, but there is little that protects them.

In Uganda a civil war lasting nineteen years has traumatized more than 40 thousand children but nobody can protect these children. Who is protecting these children? In Russia the past year approximately 50 children from two schools were burnt and 175 children were killed  the terrorists at Beslan school but nobody was able to protected them. This year in Krasnoyarsk 5 children were burnt but nobody has protected them. In the USA a mother drove her adopted son to his death but nobody has protected him. About 13 millions of the homeless children are in the USA and about 6 millions o­ne are in Russia but nobody has protected them. In some Muslim countries many hundreds children turn to the alive suicide bombers but nobody has protect them from death.

Each year we see similar statistics grows, child abuse and murder is measured in the tens of thousands. If you add the facts of hunger, poverty, criminality, narcomania, and discrimination against children, from which nobody protects them, they will be measured in tens and even hundreds millions. o­n the basis of this infinite number of unprotected children  the UN Special Session o­n Children (May 2002), initiated by UNICEF, was compelled to recognize that the world community leaves children in "poverty, discrimination and neglect". The good UN Convention o­n the Rights of the Child (1989) has generally not been executed suggests UNICEF. The richest country in the world, the USA, has fallen to the level of the poorest, Somalia, in its sixteen year refusal to ratify this Convention, setting a poor example of a scornful attitude towards children for all the world. Children are the most humiliated and marginal part of the population all over the world.

I am ashamed for our attitude towards children. We do not pity to throw out billions o­n the weapon and infinite wars, to give back them to the oligarchs for their socially senseless and corrupting enrichment, but we save each cent for millions of hungry, homeless and deserted children, which are deprived the good schools, teachers, medicine, sport, leisure, decent meal, friendly cities etc. Childhood becomes sick, despised and hated for children. Everything that we now do now for so-called "protection" of children more similar o­n hypocritical complacence of power, the rich and adults but o­nly not o­n real, adequate to need, protection of children from all their social threats, troubles and disasters. THE HONEST AND FAIR PROTECTION FOR ALL CHILDREN IS NOT PRESENT ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD TODAY.

The honest and constant protection of children, what they really require, will begin o­nly when CHILDREN BECOME A PRIORITY in society. Dmitry Mendeleyev, Janusz Korczak, Mahatma Gandhi, Elmar Sokolov, Nobel Peace Laureates, Cardinal Gustaaf Joss and some scientists called for this. But nobody knows HOW to ensure a priority to children? It can be ensured o­nly with a universal LAW "About Children's Suffrage Executed by Parents and Guardians", concretized for culture of each country and civilization. 

This law creates a priority for children. It pawns a corner stone in a basis for the order of social harmony, ensuring harmonious peace and preventing the main disasters of children: war, terrorism and poverty. It is discussed o­n sole in the world website "A New Culture of Peace from Harmony and Children's Priority" (www.peacefromharmony.org ). Please look the website contents pages 2-4, o­n which the project of the specified law is submitted.

It is a Multicultural, Multilingual and Pluralistic Website in four languages: Russian, English, Esperanto and Portuguese, to which six languages will be added in the future. More than 80 authors from 17 countries of the world have published o­n it more than 300 peace-building materials (documents, books, articles, verses, children pictures, photos etc.) for the interests and priority of children. We understand necessity of more effective practical actions in protection of children than a semi-official ritual of June 1. Children are in all countries, they are very important for each society, they require protection all over the world and they need to create a priority in all corners of the Earth. Therefore:

WE OFFER TO BEGIN FROM JUNE 1, 2005 A NEW GLOBAL CIVIL MOVEMENT "MAKING CHILDREN A PRIORITY".

It will unit the best and most part of parents, grandmothers and grandfathers, teachers and doctors, all caregivers, which with children make from 50 up to 80 % of the population in the different countries of the world. Our website, as a house of goodwill, will be first, but not by last, information resource for this humanitarian movement. There will be goodwill; there will be also other resources for it.
 
We address to all people of goodwill who are concerned about the problems children face, to support this movement by SENDING a short email with o­ne phrase "Make Children a Priority" to your government with copies in the UN, UNICEF and our website: semashko4444@mail.admiral.ru . In this letter, please, specify your first and second names, kind of employment, and relation to children (parent, grandmother, senior brother, teacher etc.), residence, country and date. For us you will be the adherents, with whom we shall form Organizational Committee of Global Movement "Making Children a Priority", its Mission, Program of activity and National Committees.

Hilarie Roseman from Australia, a mother of 8 children and grandmother of 12 grandchildren has sent the first email "making children a priority in Australia" to the Prime Minister of Australia Mr. John Howard o­n May 25. This email is published o­n our website.

LET'S FOLLOW HILARIE RISEMAN'S NOBLE AND COURAGEOUS EXAMPLE!

We address also to all peacemaking, children's, female and other civil organizations to support and TOGETHER, incorporated forces, to build the new Global Movement.

The Global Civil Movement "MAKING CHILDREN A PRIORITY" will be a constant social institute for the protection of children. It will work towards finding the most effective tools for protecting children, for CHILDREN SUFFRAGE EXECUTED BY PARENTS AND GUARDIANS!
 
With wishes of real global protection for children,

 Leo Semashko, o­n behalf of the website "Peace from Harmony" co-authors

_________________

The first responses to the Appeal:

Grigory Toulchinsky, PhD, Professor, St.-Petersburg, Russia

I support idea of granting to children of the right of a vote categorically and resolutely. The people which are not having children can not have the same suffrages as people answering for children. A degree of the responsibility and horizons of this responsibility are very different.

Grigory Toulchinsky,
Father of four children, grandfather
May 31 2005
_________
Dear Leo,

Greetings. I am very much impressed by your commited advocacy work for Child
protection, this is good work, please do not give. Peace!

Albert Kunihira,
Africa Youth Ministries Uganda
June 4, 2005
__________

June 17, 2005

Dear Leo,
Our director has decided that we, Global Coalition for Peace, should put your appeal to Make Children the Priority o­n our website with a statement of our support for the effort.  We will not be contacting our president or any other government officials since our past efforts to make any impression o­n this administration have been a waste of time.  Can you direct me to where the appeal is o­n the Peace from Harmony website.  I just went searching for it and could not find it. 

In peace,
Rose Lord, Global Coalition for Peace

Dear Rose,
I am very grateful to your Global Coalition for Peace and your Director for support of our Appeal "Making Children a Priority". I understand you that the contacts to modern governments concerning questions of peace and children are a waste of time. But they are necessary rather to us than them. These contacts will attract attention of general public and wide audience (parents etc.) with children. Please think above it.
 
Our Appeal is in the Website News list for June. Copy of this letter I direct to the leaders of several friendly to us organizations with the purpose to receive their support for our Appeal. HumanDHS and your organization already have placed our Appeal o­n the websites. Thank you very much for solidarity.

Best peace and harmony wishes,

Leo Semashko

  June 18, 2005
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