CYP Now - Children must play key role in building peaceful nation

Many might look on with a sense of despair at the political disagreements in Northern Ireland. They are symptomatic of a young political process overcoming the challenges of sharing power when the parties are often diametrically opposed.

It was in the late 1990s that we had the ceasefires and the Good Friday Agreement. But the "troubles" and their impact still resonate in every community. Our children and young people are experiencing the reduced life chances caused by a conflict that continues to rumble on to varying degrees.

There has been a range of peace-building initiatives since the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and like the agreement they make little or no reference to children and young people or the positive role that they may make. The agreement mentions young people once and children not at all. More than 17 years on, let's examine the lives of these young people.

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