HOW CARE FOR CHILDHOOD PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA IN WARTIME MAY CONTRIBUTETO PEACE

Few human tragedies stir sympathy and public concern more deeply than seeing children suffer during war. The increasingly frequent epidemics of domestic and community violence around the world stimulate similar concerns. Normal humanitarian impulses lead even the most callous peo ple to spontaneous feelings of wanting to help because such suffering among children seems morally wrong. A common consensus that children s hould not suffer because of adult inability to live in peace has becom e part of global commitment to human rights. New insights offer hope f or building peace by preventing generational cycles of ethnic hatred r esulting from psychological trauma to children.