The Hacettepe University and the NATO Public Diplomacy Division are pleased to announce the convening of an international workshop entitled  “Political Violence, Organized Crime, Terrorism and Youth"  The conference will take place on 13 th – 14th September 2007 in Turkey, the capital city Ankara. The venue is Hacettepe University Mehmet Akif Conference Hall at Beytepe Campus.

The workshop is aiming the increasing  harmony among the various policies at national and international levels and to facilitate the coordination in the planning and development of research networks and to facilitate the transfer of contemporary knowledge and the exchange of experiences in the multidisciplinal frames between the senior professionals coming from different environments and backgrounds also.

The workshop will bring together the experts, professionals, and leading academics from around the world.

Reports of cruel and humiliating punishment, genital mutilation of girls, neglect, sexual abuse, homicide, and other forms of violence against children have long been recorded, but the grave and urgent nature of this global problem has only recently been revealed. The following examples show the range of violence against children:

·       WHO has estimated, through the use of limited country-level data, that almost 53,000 children died worldwide in 2002 as a result of homicide.

·       Studies from many countries in all regions of the world suggest that up to 80 to 98 per cent of children suffer physical punishment in their homes, with a third or more experiencing severe physical punishment resulting from the use of implements.

·       Reporting on a wide range of developing countries, the Global School-based Health Survey recently found that between 20 and 65 per cent of school-aged children reported having been verbally or physically bullied in the past 30 days.

·       Bullying is also frequent in industrialized countries. WHO estimates that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence during 2002.

This black list can be extended but it is sufficient to affirm that  violence is wide spread in almost every space in our daily life from  our homes to a war in the world.  However, there has been an extraordinary neglect on the impact of political violence and organized crime on children’s development and well-being. All over the world, children are witnessing, experiencing and participating in the acts of violence perpetrated by one set of people upon another: In the Middle East, the US, the Far East, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, India, and South America. However, the effects of such violence on children’s and youth’s adjustment,  relationships, their social identity, aggression, moral sensibility, and political understanding are little understood. Clearly,political violence and organized crime can influence children in a wide variety of ways, for instance through an increase in the economic problems faced by the families of the young people.

Ataturk Mausoleum

In this proposed meeting  it is aimed to discuss on the reciprocal impact of psychological base , social environment  and the violence applied on children and youth and  also the patterns for their involvement . The second aim is to discuss on the question " can we establish some policies countering the problem with the participations  and contributions of again youth as antidote?"  Today, children and youth as being victims or the actors,have been ongoing to involve in a great variety of organized crimes - from drug trade to terrorism and from activities of street gangs to paramilitary activities-. Whether an adolescent or a child is a violent or a victim, it doesn’t make  so many difference. In fact all of them are victims of violence and they are suffering in similar proportions.

In this concept, organized crime, political violence and adolescents must be understood as the key subjects for developing protective and coping strategies. Besides among all causes of violence, social, psychological or cultural, these types of violence, -organized crimes and political violence including terrorism-have extra facilities which are generally conducted by taking support and encouragement from some of the power agents in the society, even from the governmental organizations. Without eliminating these continual remunerated violence actions, how we can have a chance to achieve a success to overcome.

According to  the all scientific research reports,  adolescence is the developmental stage between childhood and adulthood, which is characterized by psychological and social stages (search for a unique social identity for themselves) as well as by biological changes. Hence, without an intervention to the process to prevent the transitions to the undesired characteristics of social identity, how it can be possible to bring up a successful program to struggle with violence.