Putting children's rights on the military agenda

Members of the armed forces of 13 West African countries and of non-governmental organisations ended a five-day meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on Saturday with a call for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to request member states to reaffirm their commitment to international legal standards that protect children affected by armed conflict. The meeting was designed to develop a clear strategy for the final stage of a regional project to put children on the military agenda, according to Save the Children (SCF) Sweden, whose regional office convened the event along with the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Cheikh Oumar Diarra, and the director of ECOWAS' Child Protection Unit, Ibrahima Diouf. A declaration approved by the participants in the meeting called on ECOWAS to ask member states to commit personnel, time and energy to mainstreaming children's rights and child protection (including the non-recruitment of children into armed forces, and responsible sexual behaviour towards children) in military training for all members of security forces. Another recommendation coming out of the Dakar meeting was for member states to ensure reporting mechanisms that allow military and civilian personnel to report abuses of children's rights during conflict. The declaration was to be relayed to the executive secretary of ECOWAS, according to a news release issued by SCF-Sweden on 14 December. ECOWAS states agreed since 2000 to train military in children's rights The project began with ECOWAS' Accra Declaration on War Affected Children of April 2000, in which regional states agreed to incorporate children's rights and the protection of children in armed conflicts into training programmes for the military and other security forces. Since then, SCF-Sweden has been supporting partner NGOs in 13 countries to work with members of the armed forces to develop a corps of trainers to replicate training on children, their rights and protection. The training has focussed on understanding how children are affected by conflict and by the behaviour of members of the armed forces. SCF said support had also been given to enable focal points within the armed forces to advocate for the incorporation of child rights and protection into regular military structures, rules and regulations. A regional training manual, cartoon booklets and pocket cards on the rights and protection of children before, during and after conflicts have also been produced and distributed throughout the region. The final stage of the project will involve the actual incorporation of children's rights and protection into the doctrines and training programmes of all participating armed forces by the end of 2003 and the handing over of the project from civilians (the NGOs) to the military themselves, Andy Brooks, who heads SCF-Sweden's office in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, told IRIN. Thousands trained in various countries Countries participating in the project are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. According to SCF, a significant amount of training has already been done in some of these nations. About 20,000 non-state actors in Sierra Leone - former rebels and ex-members of pro-government militias - have received training in child rights and child protection, which has also been written into Sierra Leone's military training programme, Brooks told IRIN. In Liberia, he said, partners had access not only to the armed forces of Liberia but also to the anti-terrorist unit, for whom a training workshop was organised at presidential palace. As at June 2002, statistics from the various countries showed that more than 15,000 officers and soldiers had been trained or sensitised, according to SCF, which said in a news release on 15 December that the project had also trained 750 trainers of trainers. Some 2,000 soldiers departing for peacekeeping missions had been sensitised and informed about their moral obligations towards children in their countries of deployment. According to Brooks, soldiers from countries that have signed up for deployment in a West African force in Cote d'Ivoire, including Benin, Niger, Senegal and Togo, have had predeployment training in the rights and protection of children.