Working out ways to save war-affected children

A West African Week of Truce for War-Affected Children, is to be celebrated each year to coincide with the Day of the African Child (16 June), ECOWAS ministers agreed in Accra, Ghana. The measure is included in a plan of action passed by the ministers, who participated, along with young people, civil society and media from the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) subregion in a 27-28 April Conference on War Affected Children in West Africa. The action plan calls, among other things, for the immediate release of all abducted children still held by armed groups in the subregion, and for bringing to justice all those who forcibly recruit and use children in armed conflicts. The conference was co-hosted by Ghana and Canada, which is to provide Can $300,000 for setting up a child protection unit within ECOWAS, the Canadian government announced in a press release to which the Plan of Action is appended. (See http://canada.gc.ca/whats/whatsnew_e.html) Canada will also give Can $52,000 to Save the Children Sweden for a subregional initiative for military training in child rights and protection. The conference is part of the activities leading to the Global Conference on War Affected Children to be held in Winnipeg, Canada, in September of this year.