As with war and violence, peace and nonviolence have a culture. The often-stated axiom, that “peace is more than simply the absence of war” reflects an understanding that peace is a holistic condition of society, a state of being based on a culture of peace. Many societies, past and present, have and continue to live through practiced cultures of peace. Today, however, for a range of reasons and factors, many societies are plagued by war and violence, poverty and disease and poor governance. Oftentimes, this chaos is linked with a lack of full and true sovereignty. In a global society where historical contexts and external factors heavily influence the nature and condition of society, the role of international and humanitarian law, regional and international diplomacy and intervention, and global campaigns for justice and peace are critical to complementing the process of peace building and building a culture of peace in every society, especially in countries and regions which have been and continue to be plagued by war and violence.

In order to support a society’s quest to build a culture of peace and specifically as it relates to ending child soldiering, the emphasis must be on the work in local grassroots communities affected by conflict. This is the major emphasis of UMECS’ work.

UMECS is different from other organizations committed to ending child soldiering because it is mission-focused on building bottoms-up grassroots peace building movements and fostering grassroots initiatives to end child soldiering. Equally important, UMECS programs focus on networking support for grassroots organizations serving the needs of former child soldiers and children affected by conflict. This includes helping with capacity building for grassroots organizations restoring children and their caregivers damaged by conflict. The restoration of children and youth is critical, both as a matter of compassionate need and as a strategy to end the syndrome of children being cycled into armed conflict, child labor and criminal activity and re-cycled as child soldiers in second and third rounds of abduction and recruitment.

Unlike other organizations, UMECS takes positions against all wars because we oppose all wars and violence of every nature.

Analytically and strategically, UMECS views child soldiering as a function of today’s wars in which 80-90% of casualties are civilians. The targeting of civilians in today’s wars makes children the soldier of choice. Therefore, without addressing the root causes of war, and preventing new conflicts, child soldiering will not end. Without organized, coordinated and resourced grassroots peace building initiatives, war and child soldiering will not end. UMECS programs are designed to launch and support grassroots peace building movements and grassroots campaigns to end war and child soldiering.