Conference contributes to global study on child rights

Delegates meeting in Madagascar this week are expected to tackle the often-neglected issue of child rights in western Indian Ocean island countries. The three-day conference, which started on Monday, brings together child rights advocates from Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles and Reunion to discuss ways of dealing with the causes and impact of violence on children. Recommendations from this sub-regional meeting are expected to contribute to a global study on violence against children, mandated by the United Nations Secretary General in 2001 for completion in 2006. Participants at the gathering, organised by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), will also review legal and institutional responses to the battle against child abuse. "We are here to make a difference in the lives of children. We are confident that our discussions during the next three days will cover ground in an area that merits our attention," UNICEF's officer-in-charge, Bashige Bashizi, said in statement on Tuesday. UNICEF highlighted that, although sparsely documented, family violence existed throughout the western Indian Ocean countries: a 1998 study in Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, found that one in five children had suffered domestic violence. The meeting is one of the first of a series of joint initiatives launched by UNICEF, the University of Mauritius and the Indian Ocean Observatory for Child Rights, which was set up last year to monitor the situation of children in the region.