Experts review progress on child rights

West African experts on child rights met government and nongovernmental representatives in Mali on Monday at the start of a three-day technical meeting to review progress in promoting children rights in the Economic Community of West African States. The delegates at the meeting in Bamako, organised by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and ECOWAS, are due to review country reports and assess progress across the region over the last 10 years. They are also expected to examine socio-cultural practices that affect boys and girls across the region. While progress on polio and guinea-worm eradication, salt iodisation, education and health sector reforms could be highlighted, the region still lags behind others in the world. UNICEF Resident Representative in Mali, Pascal Villeneuve, told the opening session that a review had shown progress in most parts of the region, but that many countries had still not reached their objectives, some had stagnated and others had recorded a drop in key social indicators. Participants at the Bamako agreed that socio-political upheavals had deterred West African countries from implementing pro-children rights policies. They called on governments to ensure significant progress in 2001-2010, a decade that has been declared the "Decade of the Child" in the ECOWAS region. "Children represent wealth. Their situation remains a telling indicator of the level of economic, social and cultural development in a country," Ba Odette Yattara, Mali's Minister for the Promotion of Women, Child and Family Affairs, told participants. During the meeting, delegates will develop a draft regional framework document on children's rights, which countries in the region will be asked to implement, after its approval by ECOWAS heads of state.