Muhammad Ali Center to Co-Sponsor The Schools for Global Peace Programme With United Nations Office of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict

Each and every day, thousands of our world's children and youth are murdered, mutilated, raped, tortured, orphaned, left homeless and enslaved as tolerated acts of war. Today, the horrors of violence and conflict have increasingly become part of our common reality, whether in Afghanistan, the Middle East, New York City, or even within our own hometowns. For children-who have always represented our highest hopes for the future-the reality of violence has not only left emotional and physical scars, but it has robbed them of their own futures.

On Wednesday, April 24, the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in co-sponsorship with the Muhammad Ali Center, launched a special programme to help spare the lives of children and young people now, and for generations to come, from the ravages of war. The event took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Among the participants were children from areas of conflict, Miya Ali, daughter of United Nations "Messenger of Peace", Muhammad Ali; Academy Award winning composer Stephen Schwartz; and the LaGuardia High School Chorus. Other sponsors include the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, Global Kids, For Our Children's Sake, Save the Children UK, and WITNESS.

The Schools for Global Peace Programme is designed to educate young people on the plight of their peers caught in armed conflict and to establish a worldwide network of peace, understanding, tolerance, and love. Schools completing the program-which includes comprehensive lesson plans for teachers in schools around the world and writing and role-playing activities for children-will be designated as Global Peace Schools by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. The Programme will give young people a chance to learn, express themselves, and act to help their peers who are trapped in terror.

The recent UN publication, Marie, In the Shadow of the Lion,--the first-ever novel published by the United Nations-will also be featured, with a curriculum unit developed around the messages it contains.