NEWS RELEASES

April 28, 2000 (3:00 p.m. EDT) No. 88

AXWORTHY CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR WEST AFRICAN PLAN OF ACTION ON WAR-AFFECTED CHILDREN

Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy today welcomed the adoption of the Accra Declaration and the Plan of Action on War-Affected Children by West African ministers following a two-day meeting to address the issue in Accra, Ghana. The two documents, based on prevention and child protection in the sub-region, were developed by Ghana in partnership with Canada.

The Plan of Action is a detailed elaboration of the Declaration that presents a menu of specific initiatives specially tailored to prevention and child protection in West Africa. It proposes an annual "West African Week of Truce for War-Affected Children" in all member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to coincide with the Day of the African Child (June 16) and to raise public awareness about the plight of war-affected children. It also calls for ratifying the Statute of the International Criminal Court and bringing to justice those who forcibly recruit and use children in armed conflict.

"The Accra Declaration calls for the immediate release of all abducted children still being held by armed groups in the region," said Mr. Axworthy. "The international community should give its full support to this demand and welcome the proposal for an annual West African truce for war-affected children. We will promote this agenda within international forums, such as the United Nations Security Council, the G-8 and the Human Security Network, and will call for political and financial support for its implementation."

Over the two days, West African youth, civil society, media and governments from across the sub-region examined in great depth the brutality and suffering experienced by children trapped in the midst of conflicts: child soldiers, internally displaced and refugee children, sexually abused girls and boys, and children who have missed out on years of education.

Strengthening the capacity of regional institutions in West Africa to prevent conflicts and protect children was a major outcome of the Conference. Canada is committed to act with West African governments and ECOWAS for immediate and longer-term follow-up of this Plan of Action.

In the short term, Canada will provide $300 000 for the establishment of a child protection unit within ECOWAS. Canada will also assist ECOWAS in engaging the international community in this effort.

As well, Canada will provide $52 000 to Save the Children Sweden in support of a sub-regional initiative for military training in child rights and protection. Save the Children Sweden will be training instructors in national armed forces on a country-by-country basis within West Africa.

In response to calls from war-affected youth attending the Conference, Talking Drum Studios, a non-governmental organization (NGO) with a great deal of experience in Liberia, will receive $100 000 from Canada to launch a radio training and capacity-building media project with young people and adults in Sierra Leone.

The recommendations agreed upon during the Conference on War-Affected Children in West Africa are an important step in the lead-up to the Global Conference on War-Affected Children, to be held in Winnipeg in September 2000, and to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001.

Tomorrow, Minister Axworthy and David Pratt, Member of Parliament for Nepean-Carleton and Special Envoy to Sierra Leone, will travel to Freetown with Sierra Leone's Foreign Minister Sama Banya and Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, to visit camps housing former child soldiers and war-affected children. They will also meet with the political leadership and NGOs in that country.

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A backgrounder is attached.

For further information, media representatives may contact:

Debora Brown

Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs

(613) 995-1851

Media Relations Office

Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

(613) 995-1874

Backgrounder

CONFERENCE ON WAR-AFFECTED CHILDREN IN WEST AFRICA

PLAN OF ACTION

At the invitation of the Government of Ghana in collaboration with the Government of Canada, with the active participation of the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, we, ECOWAS Member States, meeting in Accra from 27-28 April, 2000, adopted a Declaration on War-Affected Children. Pursuant to this Declaration, we, ECOWAS Member States agree to co-operate with representatives of civil society organizations, international organizations and donor agencies to carry out the following actions,

A. PROTECTION

• Implementing Norms and Standards

OP1 CALL FOR the immediate release by armed groups in the sub-region of all children abducted and held against their will,

OP2 RESOLVE to ratify and fully implement the provisions of international instruments on the rights of the child,

OP3 CALL UPON ECOWAS Member States to take all necessary steps to fully implement and respect the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1261 (1999) and 1265 (1999), the four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Labour Organization Convention 182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the draft Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and further call upon all parties to sign and ratify the protocol once it is open for signature,

a. Host training sessions on the application and implementation of the international instruments on the rights of the child, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the draft Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict;

b. Following adoption of the Plan of Action, designate a national body responsible for co-ordinating and monitoring the implementation of International Instruments on the rights of the child, and provide the name and address of this body to the Legal Division at the ECOWAS Secretariat;

c. Following adoption of the Plan of Action, bring into force national legislative and regulatory measures to set the minimum age for military recruitment at 18 years;

d. Following adoption of the Plan of Action, bring into force comprehensive national measures -- including legislative, regulatory and administrative measures -- on the protection of children which incorporate the substantive provisions of the above international instruments on the rights of the child;

e. Disseminate information on the key provisions of international instruments on the rights of the child. This information should be readily available to local populations in West Africa, in non-technical style and translated into local languages and dialects. The information should be communicated both orally and in written format.

OP4 COMMIT to ratify the Statute of the International Criminal Court and to bring to justice those who commit violations against children.

(ii) Demobilization, Disarmament, Rehabilitation and Reintegration

OP5 COMMIT to working closely with civil society groups to ensure the protection, disarmament and demobilization of child combatants, and reintegration and rehabilitation of war-affected children into their families and communities,

a. Identify trained local or national groups to serve with ECOMOG Stand-by Units, to assist with disarming, demobilizing, reintegrating and rehabilitating war-affected children as mandated in the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and Security including addressing the gender-specific challenges of reintegration;

b. Ensure the close collaboration and co-ordination between all governments and civil society groups active in the region in the provision of services to war-affected children, with particular attention to gender dimensions.

OP6 RESOLVE to establish and strengthen programs for the rehabilitation of all war-affected children, as well as programs for the successful reintegration of those children within communities,

a. Raise media awareness on issues relating to war-affected children;

b. Ensure that the particular and differentiated needs of war-affected children are taken into account in the provision of services to war-affected populations, and to ensure that such considerations are mainstreamed in service design, development and delivery in keeping with efforts to institute the Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response and other relevant instruments;

c. In areas prone to conflict, the social services infrastructure should be structured and expanded to care for the specific needs of girl and boy child soldiers and war-affected children and to enable continuous assessment of each individual child;

d. Ensure the overall protection of the girl child as provided for by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Beijing Platform for Action. Pay particular attention to sexual exploitation, abuse and trauma, including those associated with pregnancy;

e. Consult extensively at the community and national level to ensure that rehabilitation and reintegration programs are carried out in collaboration with civil society, community leaders, traditional and religious authorities, including women's and children's organizations;

f. Allocate a percentage of the national budget to demobilization, reintegration and rehabilitation programs, wherever there are children affected by armed conflict.

(iii) Education

OP7 AGREE, in co-operation with donor agencies to work toward ensuring that all children have access to quality basic education and, as part of that effort, develop school curricula to support awareness of human rights and good governance principles, alternate dispute resolution methods, tolerance and techniques for conflict management,

a. Provide the resources required to maintain educational services for children, including refugee and internally displaced children in conflict and post-conflict situations;

b. Provide for the sensitization of other students, parents and school authorities to accept all war-affected children, including child soldiers, as students and to recognize their particular needs by developing flexible teaching methodologies geared to instruct these children;

c. Review and modify school curriculum and course materials to integrate peace education and remove discriminatory gender, ethnic and religious stereotypes;

d. Support and encourage the efforts of community leaders, parents, elders, teachers and religious leaders to reclaim valuable traditional values;

e. Provide for economically viable and marketable (or artisan-oriented) skills or vocational training to allow young men and women to earn a sustainable livelihood.

B. PREVENTION

(i) Addressing Fundamental Political, Social and Economic Factors

a. Resolve to take political, social and economic preventive measures to address factors which tend to contribute to the occurrence or recurrence of conflict and to that end call on ECOWAS Member States to ensure good governance and democratic practice, more equitable patterns of resource distribution within countries, national cohesion and elimination of conditions of extreme poverty and despair.

(ii) Military Education and Training

OP8 DECIDE to incorporate child rights and the protection of children in armed conflict into training programs for military forces and other security agencies,

a. Devise, share and incorporate military training manuals and programs on international human rights and humanitarian law, focussed particularly on children's rights;

b. Intensify existing training programs for military forces and other security agencies, to be more sensitive to issues of child rights and gender;

c. Develop a network of military institutions sensitive to the rights of the child, gender and specialized training on international humanitarian law issues. This network will ensure periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of these international humanitarian law training programs;

d. Adopt measures to improve the gender balance among peacekeepers in national armed forces;

e. Explore ways and means to enforce compliance with international instruments on gender and the rights of the child;

f. Include women's and children's organizations in the training of military forces, police and other security agencies.

(iii) Media Awareness and Activities

OP9 RESOLVE to develop specific programs to provide information, education and communication materials on child rights in order that the media are well informed to contribute to the rights, welfare and protection of children, and to develop media activities, particularly radio programs, for the benefit of war-affected children, sensitive to and consistent with the best interests of the child,

a. Host information sessions for local media organizations on the provisions of international and regional instruments on the rights of the child, including United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1261 (1999) and 1265 (1999), the four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the draft Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and Security Council Resolutions 1261 and 1265 and encourage and assist local media organizations to monitor the effective adherence to these instruments;

b. Organize information sessions to media organizations on the provisions of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, including on the definitions of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes;

c. Develop media information, particularly radio programs, devoted to the needs and interests of children and young people affected by conflict. This would serve to give voice to children's concerns, offer education, training and entertainment, promote tolerance and reconciliation, and raise awareness of the rights and protection of children.

(iv) Early Warning Systems

OP10 RESOLVE to implement early warning/response systems in the region to forestall armed conflicts and the victimization and abuse of children and their involvement in these conflicts,

a. Designate focal points (community members, traditional authorities and other organizations) which are represented throughout the country to act as early warning contact centres. Also, designate a government agency, international organization or representative of civil society in national capitals to collect, compile and report immediately on signs of potential conflict;

b. Bolster ECOWAS early warning capacity so that the four Observation and Monitoring Zonal Bureaus can network with designated centres in national capitals and oversee an early warning network with the aim of protecting children from involvement in conflicts;

c. Ensure that media representatives are afforded the necessary freedom to recognize and report responsibly and accurately on potential and actual conflicts;

d. Identify groups or individuals who are willing and able to function as non-partisan mediators, and provide support that they may be mobilized at short notice to defuse conflict situations;

e. In conflict-prone areas, encourage dialogue between opposing factions by holding periodic meetings with community leaders and other local authorities, including women and young people.

C. REGIONAL INITIATIVES

(i) ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Mechanism

a. Integrating child protection into ECOWAS peacemaking initiatives

Ensure that the protection and well-being of children features systematically in any negotiations to end war and peace accords.

b. Integrating the protection of children into ECOWAS peacekeeping operations

Ensure that the following measures are incorporated into ECOWAS peacekeeping operations:

• That the protection and rights of children are explicitly provided for in the mandates of ECOWAS peacekeeping missions;

• That child protection advisers are attached to ECOWAS field missions;

• That appropriate training is provided for all peacekeeping personnel with regard to the rights and protection of children.

OP11 COMMIT to promote sub-regional, cross-border initiatives to reduce the flow of small arms and light weapons, the recruitment and abduction of children, the displacement of populations and the separation of families, as well as illicit trade in natural resources,

OP12 CALL on the international community to provide more support to host countries and UNHCR, in order to reduce the social, economic, environmental and security impact of refugee outfow within the sub-region,

OP 13 CALL on ECOWAS states to provide, with the support of UN agencies and donors, full protection, access and relief to internally displaced persons, the vast majority of whom are women and children, in accordance with international refugee law and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement,

OP14 COMMIT to support the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security signed by all ECOWAS Member States at the Lomé Summit on 10 December, 1999,

a. Ratify in the shortest time possible the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security;

b. Fully support, both morally and financially, a role for the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, in the protection of children in areas of potential conflict, and war-affected children;

c. Ensure, through work with donor organizations, that the four Observation and Monitoring Zones, mandated in Article 24 of the Protocol (in Banjul, Ouagadougou, Monrovia and Cotonou) are fully functional within a reasonable time, and that their monitoring and reporting functions include early warning and monitoring on children's rights and security. Monitoring should include social, political, economic and military indicators relating to the security of children.

(ii) ECOWAS Moratorium

OP15 STRONGLY URGE ECOWAS Member States to support the implementation of the ECOWAS Moratorium in order to halt the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the sub-region,

a. Fully support the Program for Co-ordination and Assistance for Security and Development and, in particular, the implementation of a regional arms and light weapons registry and database;

b. Assemble an ECOWAS experts high-level group to assess implementation of and non-compliance with the ECOWAS Moratorium at national levels, and to recommend measures to be taken against individuals or states proven to have violated the ECOWAS Moratorium on small arms and measures to encourage full implementation;

c. Ensure that national military, police and customs officials and all other security agencies and customs administration training programs include sessions on the ECOWAS Moratorium on small arms and light weapons, as well as instructions regarding identification of behaviours which constitute an infraction of the ECOWAS Moratorium.

(iii) Peacekeeping Duty

OP16 RESOLVE, with assistance from the international community, to keep duty tours of ECOWAS peacekeepers to a reasonable length, in keeping with UN standards.

(iv) Institutionalizing Child Protection within ECOWAS

OP17 ESTABLISH an office within ECOWAS for the protection of war-affected children in the region and agree to remain actively seized of the matter,

a. Establish within the ECOWAS Secretariat, a Desk or focal point dedicated to the protection of war-affected children which deals with emergency assistance, humanitarian and human rights issues, including early warning capacity and adequate vocational training. This Desk or focal point should draw on the expertise and growing knowledge base housed in the Program for Assistance and Co-ordination for Security and Development (PCASED) to ensure that the impact of arms proliferation on war-affected children is addressed;

b. In so doing, build ECOWAS capacity to monitor the implementation of, and adherence to, international instruments on the rights of the child, and to monitor contraventions of the provisions of these conventions;

c. Institute ECOWAS measures against states, groups or individuals which use child soldiers or which assist in the use of child soldiers;

d. Obtain the support and collaboration for such measures from the international community.

(v) West African Week of Truce for War-Affected Children

OP18 AGREE to institute, in solidarity with any country in a conflict situation, an annual "West African Week of Truce for War-Affected Children" in all ECOWAS Member States, to coincide with the Day of the African Child (July 16), to raise public awareness about the plight of war-affected children in the region,

a. Identify national groups charged with co-ordinating educational activities for the week of truce;

b. Ensure the co-ordination of relief and humanitarian services including vaccination and registration of children during the week of truce;

c. Support efforts to disarm and demobilize all children who have been involved in armed conflict and ensure that the principle of best interests of the child is taken into account when doing so;

d. Rehabilitate and reintegrate war-affected children during and in the period leading up to the week of truce, in addition to taking all necessary steps for family reunification and the physical and psycho-social healing of all war-affected children;

e. Institute measures on the week of truce to encourage and mobilize families to register all children who were not registered at birth;

f. Engage international groups as official cease-fire monitors in areas of conflict, during the week of truce.

OP19 COMMIT to work with community leaders to support efforts to strengthen and apply traditional values and norms which provide for the protection of children in situations of conflict, in recognition of the important role of these values and norms in African societies,

OP20 COMMIT to take measures to involve young people as participants and advocates in the movement for the protection of war-affected children, including developing children-to-children networks and links within West Africa,

OP21 CALL ON the donor community, UN agencies and international NGOs, to support and strengthen national institutions, local NGOs, local civil society and communities to offer support and build local capacities for protection and advocacy for war-affected children,

OP22 DECIDE to dedicate a meeting of ECOWAS Foreign Ministers within the next 12 months to examine the role of national governments and ECOWAS in the protection of all war-affected children,

OP23 ECOWAS Member States urge the international community to provide expertise as well as moral and financial support for the implementation of these initiatives.