Moving child rights up the agenda

The plight of former child soldiers and war-affected children in Angola is beginning to ease as they slowly reintegrate back into their communities, but new threats such as child trafficking and HIV/AIDS are emerging, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. A post-war child protection strategy had shown "significant results", Abubacar Sultan, UNICEF's head of child protection, told IRIN. Around 3,500 children had been reunited with their families, and 3,480, including former child soldiers, were involved in reintegration programmes such as back-to-school schemes, micro-enterprise programmes for older adolescents, or child-friendly centres where they could socialise and discuss issues. "These are good signs; this is what is needed in post-war Angola. A huge amount of work has been conducted and the results are encouraging," Sultan said after a three-day meeting of government, UNICEF and NGO officials. But financial constraints, a shortage of specialised personnel and difficulties in gaining access to children in remote communities meant there was still much to be done. "It's difficult to estimate [how many are not being reached] but there remains a dire need," he said. "We need a very strong policy, but we must also educate people on how to enforce a policy in a country where, for too long, child rights have been abused." An evaluation of the strategy highlighted the need to prepare for future dangers. "UNICEF is also looking at emerging challenges, such as the impact of HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse, child trafficking, child labour and children involved in conflicts with the authorities," Sultan noted. With 70 percent of Angola's population under the age of 24, the youth are having to shoulder a tremendous responsibility to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The war helped keep a lid on the disease, making Angola's prevalence rate of around five percent far lower than many of the neighbouring countries, but 3.5 million Angolans have returned home, and the very real fear is that HIV/AIDS is also on the move. "With the free movement of people, we believe HIV/AIDS is spreading. That means children become more vulnerable if a family member becomes sick and dies," Sultan explained. "We have to prevent this whole cloud, created by the emergence of orphans ... by incorporating the issue of children vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS with those already vulnerable because of the war." UNICEF figures showed that around 30 percent of children aged five to 14 in Angola were working, and child trafficking was also likely to be a problem. "Trafficking exists. We have no facts or figures, but we have identified areas of intervention which are extremely weak," he said. With less than a third of children registered at birth, monitoring the extent of trafficking was almost impossible. "We're trying to be proactive, to work with the government to come up with a national plan to prevent it; put in place administrative measures to strengthen law enforcement and identify gaps in existing legislation," Sultan commented. Another area of concern was the rising crime perpetrated by youngsters, ranging from petty theft to murder. Given the lack of opportunity, education and amusement, it was not surprising that many youths turned to delinquency - but it was also important to create a competent juvenile justice system, he said. "The first court started in Luanda only last year, and it needs to be structured countrywide. We need to look at how to expand that with courts, lawyers, social welfare workers, all working together to establish a good and protective system for juveniles." Despite the scale and scope of the task ahead, Sultan was hopeful that UNICEF and its partners could continue to make a difference, provided they got more financial support from the Angolan government and the international community. "We're optimistic because we have good dialogue between our partners in this specific field. Obviously we have to keep up a sustained effort, in terms of advocacy, resources and government commitment towards child rights – we have to keep the momentum going," he said. "Angolan children deserve nothing less."