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African ministers from French-speaking countries vowed on Friday, at the end a two-day conference on child exploitation, to enact laws and strengthen subregional and international cooperation to protect child rights.
The conference, in the Malian capital Bamako, also pledged to "advocate for a higher allocation of resources" for the protection of children. In their declaration, the ministers urged states to ratify all international legislation, including ILO Convention 138 and 182, as well as to conduct information campaigns on child rights.
The conference produced a list of 21 "guiding principles" that define child exploitation activities that still need to be banned. The conference heard that child exploitation included trafficking for sex and labour, violence and other mistreatment, enrolment in armed conflict, as well as forcing school-age children to work. The conference defined a child as anyone below 18 years old.
The conference was born out of the second world congress against exploitation held in Yokohama, Japan, in December 2001. It is the latest African initiative against the phenomenon that has been recognised as a new scourge on the continent.
The Bamako meeting was jointly organised by the Malian and French governments with participants from Burundi, Cameroon, Comores, Congo (Republic of), Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
