For its first eight years, Peace Child was involved in citizen diplomacy,working actively to achieve conflict resolution through the musical "Peace Child" which was based on Bernard Benson''s The Peace Book, composed by David Gordon and written by David Woollcombe. In 1986 it brought the first Soviet children to the USA on a youth exchange programme in a joint Soviet American production of the Peace Child musical which toured through 12 cities.

The original Peace Child musical has been re-written many times over by young people of different nations and cultures to reflect their own experiences of violence and conflict. The musical has been involved in conflict resolution efforts in Central America, Cyprus, Azerbaijan/Armenia, the former Yugoslavia, India, Northern Ireland and Israel.

Since 1992, Peace Child has focused mainly on the issue of sustainable development and human rights issues. It has created a series of youth produced books on the subject working closely with various UN agencies. There have been follow up educational programmes in Asia, Eastern Europe, West Africa and Latin America. It has also organised three major youth congresses with partners in Hawaii, Morocco and Scotland; in addition to smaller events. Following the Hawaii Congress in 1999 Peace Child has been working to support local youth led initiatives