Message of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Matthias Schmale on the International Day of Peace
In the school I have just visited with my UNICEF colleagues, we met with children who have decided to be ambassadors of peace.
Some of them told me they are in the 11th grade, so all their lives, school lives, they have seen and experienced their country at war and being aggressed against. Yet they have decided to be ambassadors of peace.
In war and occupation, children have rights. They have the right to education, the right to health care, and the right to express themselves.
And I want to finish my small remark by quoting the children themselves.
The school principal asked them: "What does peace mean for you?"
And let me read some of the answers they gave.
Some of them said it means freedom.
It means friendship.
It means love to your family.
It means having a heart.
It means having a future, full of safety.
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