Happy Birthday Lena. This post ist dedicated to a better future for my childrens childrens and future generations.

Mark the World Children’s Day

• Mark the calendar: 20 November is World Children’s Day, the anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC – 1989). Austria primarily observes this date. Germany officially celebrates “Weltkindertag” on 20 September, while many countries—especially in Central/Eastern Europe and parts of Asia—celebrate International Children’s Day on 1 June. 
• The United States remains the only UN member state that has not ratified the CRC. Since 2015 the USA are the only state does not play with the other states. 

Why AI thinks is this so important for Peace?

We have learned the hard way that ideas can bless or burn. Since Kant’s 1795 essay “Perpetual Peace,” humanity has stumbled through ideological crusades and nationalist fever dreams that invariably left civilians—and children—paying the highest price. The useful question is not “Who was right back then?” but “What works now?” If we asked a pragmatic, data-literate Peace AI for a to-do list to structurally expand peace, it would start where the evidence is strongest.

1) Put children’s rights first

Conflict today is a war on children. The UN verified a record 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024, with 22,495 children killed, maimed, abducted, recruited, sexually assaulted or denied aid. That’s a 25% jump in one year. Add this in the “Children’s rights first” section:

The United States remains the only UN member state that has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)—it signed in 1995 but never ratified—so it now stands alone (Somalia and South Sudan both ratified in 2015). 

Violence at home is just as alarming. The WHO estimates 1.2 billion children are subjected to corporal punishment each year—harm that is linked to poorer development, anxiety, depression and the intergenerational transmission of violence. 

Policy moves that work

• Enact and enforce a global ban on corporal punishment in all settings, with real budgets for parenting support, hotlines, shelters and trauma-informed services. 
• Scale up child-protection systems, survivor services and early-warning/response in conflict zones in lockstep with humanitarian access. 

2) Books, not bombs

UNESCO’s benchmark is simple: invest 4–6% of GDP in education. Many countries still fall short—and the aid picture is deteriorating fast. New projections show global aid to education is set to fall by about 25% between 2023 and 2027. In fact, the entire annual total of education aid equals roughly 2½ days of world military spending. That’s a grim ratio—and an actionable one. 

Policy moves that work

• Lock in at least 5% of GDP for education domestically, prioritizing early years, girls’ education and teacher pay. 
• Agree a donor compact to stop the aid free-fall and restore predictable multi-year funding to the poorest systems. 
• Divert a tiny sliver of global military outlays to a ring-fenced Education Peace Window—even 2½ days’ worth per year would transform outcomes. 

3) Law, justice and accountability that bite

A Peace AI would push to make war a losing proposition for decision-makers, not for populations:

• Strengthen the International Criminal Court’s capacity and political backing, expand jurisdictional pathways, and resource survivor-centered investigations of sexual violence.
• Target sanctions at war profiteers (elites, firms, logistics nodes), not whole societies.
• Provide legal shields and funding for whistleblowers and peace journalists who surface warning signs early.

These moves change incentives: they increase the personal cost of atrocity while protecting those who prevent it.

4) Social innovation: make cooperation the default

Peace is not abstract; it is built into institutions people actually touch.

• Create global youth exchanges modelled on Erasmus, with seats reserved for the Global South and conflict-affected regions.
• Embed citizens’ assemblies in peace processes so governments must answer to deliberating publics, not just armed actors.
• Deploy Peace-Tech: data-driven early-warning systems linked to local mediators, shelters and services—so alerts trigger help, not just headlines.

5) Disarmament is climate action

Militaries are major emitters—and their supply chains are even bigger. Best estimates put the military carbon footprint at roughly 3–7% of global greenhouse gases, with NATO’s 2023 activities alone associated with about 233 MtCO₂e—more than some countries emit in a year. Under-reporting remains pervasive, but the direction of travel is clear: more arms, more emissions, less security. 

Policy moves that work

• Commit to annual 10% reductions in military spending for states not in active UN-mandated operations, and publish audited military emissions under UNFCCC rules. 
• Capitalize International Conversion Funds to shift workers and factories from armaments to renewables, public health, resilient housing and education.
• Tie climate finance and export-credit terms to demonstrable demilitarization and transparent emissions reporting. 

6) Culture: rewrite what we celebrate

Narratives govern budgets. When cooperation is heroic, politics follows.

• Fund films, games and music that glorify bridge-building, not body counts; treat dialog and restraint as acts of courage.
• Put peace exemplars—Suttner, Mandela, Arendt, Galtung—in front of the algorithmic spotlight at least as often as generals.
• Endow peace journalism: slower, verified, solutions-oriented reporting that does not reward escalation.

A realistic horizon

The 20th century alone likely cost around 110 million lives to war; broader tallies of conflict and state violence run far higher. We don’t need more proof that violence is expensive and bad at delivering its promises. We need systems that make peace cheaper to choose and harder to derail. 

What the data say is simple:

• Protecting children prevents the reproduction of violence. 
• Financing learning beats financing fear. 
• Reducing militarization eases both conflict risk and climate risk. 

Bottom line

“Who protects children, protects the future.

Who strengthens justice, starves violence.

Who rewards cooperation, makes peace durable.”

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Sources

• United Nations, Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict (covering 2024); report and summary. 
• WHO, Corporal punishment and health fact sheet; reporting in The Guardian, 21 Aug 2025. 
• UNESCO/UIS, Education 2030 financing benchmark (4–6% of GDP). 
• UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) / World Education Blog, “Global aid to education projected to fall even further,” 26 Jun 2025; “A call for urgent action,” 3 Jul 2025 (2½-days comparison). 
• CEOBS & Scientists for Global Responsibility, Estimating the military’s global GHG emissions; Guardian coverage on NATO’s 233 MtCO₂e (2023). 
• Our World in Data, War and Peace (20th-century war deaths); University of Maryland tally of wider 20th-century conflict/democide. 

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