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Summary: Specific recommendations for the Regional
Consultation that took place in Bamako, Mali
from 24 to 25 May 2005 can be found below.
You can also download the full report.
I. General Recommendations
Principles
§ Children have rights but they also have duties: they must
respect their parents, their teachers and their employers; by the same
token parents must respect their children.
Raising awareness
§ Break the culture of silence
§ Develop awareness campaigns on the long-term consequences
of violence against children:
- involve the whole community, including religious and traditional
leaders, the media and children
- encourage dialogue between parents and children
- promote non-violent discipline methods.
§ Obligate governments and parents to register births
Participation of children
§ Ensure the participation of children at very stage of the process
of formulating projects, programmes and policies put in place for the
protection of children.
§ Support organisations and initiatives for children to prevent and
fight against all forms of violence committed against children.
Legislation
§ Adopt and apply laws abolishing violence against children:
- explicitly forbid corporal punishment as well as all forms of
violence within the family, in schools and in institutions
- in judicial proceedings develop specific mechanisms that take
into account the word of children (giving testimony, the integrity of the
child, etc.)
§ Facilitate the procedure for indictments on violence, notably
sexual violence committed against children.
§ Adopt and apply the optional Protocol of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography.
Budgetary
§ Increase the national budget allocation for programmes for
protecting children against violence.
§ Take into account the problematic of protecting vulnerable
children in poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP).
Training
§ Put in place, at a community level, training on human rights by
involving all the local actors, including young people and children, parents,
teachers, community and religious leaders, the media, social workers and
other partners.
§ Adopt and implement intensive training programmes for judges,
magistrates, educationalists, teachers, police officers, prison warders,
customs officials etc. on listening techniques and management of child
victims.
Coordination / integration
§ Strengthen partnerships between United Nations’ agencies,
NGOs, communities and other agencies working on questions linked to
violence committed against children.
Services
§ Put in place appropriate methods for assisting children who are
victims of physical, psychological and sexual violence.
§ Create a favourable environment for listening to children through
the introduction of:
- listening centres accessible to children
- toll free telephone numbers in order to break the wall of silence
§ Create and strengthen the juvenile liaison police and their
interaction with partners in protection.
II. Specific Recommendations
1. Violence within families
§ Support parents in the development of non-violent education:
- make parents aware of alternative discipline methods
- explain to parents the consequences of corporal punishment
- explain children’s rights.
§ Initiate and support national surveys on the causes of violence
in families, including sexual violence, by taking into account the opinions of
children.
2. Community violence
§ Vote in laws abolishing excision and put in place measures for
applying these laws.
§ Raise the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 and institute
parity between men and women regarding the age of marriage.
§ Encourage a wide debate in national and local forums on
traditional and modern (paedophilia, sex tourism, pornography) practices
that are harmful to children, including the effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic:
- involve traditional and modern media forms
- concentrate on the needs identified by the young people
themselves particularly regarding the questions of reproductive health.
§ Introduce into all types and levels of teaching curricula, training
modules on the fight against harmful traditional practices, the prevention
of HIV/Aids and the culture of peace.
3. Violence linked to conflicts
§ Adopt and apply the optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict
§ Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes
should take into account the needs of children who are victims of the
conflict, notably with regard to special and specific education, professional
training and psychological support in order to give them alternative options
to that of war.
§ Initiate and support research on the repercussions of armed
conflict on the breaking down of traditional social support systems, the
impact of violence on the relationships between men / women,
parents/children and on the way that violence has become an everyday
feature of life.
4. Violence linked to HIV/Aids
§ Expose the violence (psychological, discriminatory) inflicted on
children affected and infected by HIV/Aids (marginalisation of families
where the parents are ill; stigmatisation of infected children). Put an end
to this stigmatisation by passing “positive” messages.
§ Strengthen the means available to families to protect and take
care of orphans and vulnerable children (by concentrating on the attitudes
and cultural values of cooperation and solidarity).
5. Violence in schools and institutions
§ Abolish corporal punishment in schools and propose alternative
non-violent discipline methods to teachers (list and category to be drawn
up in consultation with the children).
§ Train and raise awareness amongst national educational
personnel on respecting the rights of the child: school inspectors, directors,
teachers, children and the personnel who work within educational
establishments.
§ Develop children’s committees in schools whose role is to lead
awareness-raising activities amongst other children on the prevention of
violence (promote peer education). Establish links between the children’s
committees and social structures.
§ Create and support advice centres in schools and train
counsellors on listening to and advising children who are victims of violence
and on the rights of children.
§ Raise awareness and inform parents of the exploitative situation
in which some children find themselves when they are entrusted to Koranic
teachers and other institutions.
§ Define and apply minimum standards for taking care of children in
Koranic schools with the aim of improving the quality of life and education
for children. Document and distribute the good practices of some Koranic
schools.
§ Encourage the community and parents to be more involved in
the school and other institutions that are frequented by children, including
Koranic schools, to better prevent and fight against violence against
children.
§ Strengthen research on situations (causes and consequences) of
violence inflicted on children in schools and institutions.
6. Juvenile justice
§ Implement guidelines developed through international tools on
the conditions for detaining children who are in conflict with the law,
particularly:
- Institute a minimum age of 13 for criminal responsibility
- Introduce sentences that are lighter
- Separate children from adults in the police stations and in
prisons (men from boys and girls from women)
- Develop alternative measures to imprisonment (financial and
human support, establish minimum standards)
- Develop retraining educational programmes in children’s
detention centres
- Increase the number of courts for children and their resources
- Train more judges for children and increase the social services in
law courts
§ Train and raise awareness amongst magistrates and
representatives of the law, and social workers, on the procedures and
mechanisms for the protection of children in conflict with the law.
7. Violence in the Workplace
§ Ratify and apply Convention n°138 of the ILO on the minimum
working age and Convention n°182 of the ILO on worst forms of labour.
§ Create and implement a national action plan for fighting violence
in the workplace. Draft and enforce laws to combat the worst forms of
child labour, including child slavery and forced or mandatory recruitment of
children with a view to using them in armed conflicts.
§ Develop and implement strategies for raising awareness and
mobilising it amongst children, families, the media and communities on the
basis of a better knowledge of the rights and risks run by children. Pay
particular attention to:
- the risks attached to starting work very young (including in the
family context)
- the dangers of children moving outside the parental unit and the
practice of placing children: the risk of exploitation, emotional isolation,
mistreatment, sexual abuse and of recruitment into armed groups
- the dangers attached to certain sectors identified as the most
dangerous
- the involvement of women in awareness programmes who have
worked in domestic service
§ Strengthen the capacities of governments, NGOs and
communities in giving psychological support to child victims, particularly girls
who have been caught up in prostitution and children who have worked in
slave conditions and street children.
§ All the partners and particularly governments must raise
awareness amongst employers and put in place measures to ensure that
the work being done by young workers, including those working on the
streets, is done in a secure environment.
§ Governments and partners should collaborate to raise
awareness and encourage employers to assume their responsibilities to
supply child labourers with their basic needs necessary for them in the
course of their work.
§ Develop alternative education programmes for child labourers.
III. Recommendations for following up on the Consultation
The participants of the regional consultation on violence against children
asked:
§ Governments to publish the study and the recommendations of
the consultations at a national level to create a dialogue framework with
the nomination of a focal point to draw up, in collaboration with civil society
representatives, national action plans on the implementation of the
recommendations on violence against children.
§ Governments to put in place national mechanisms to strengthen
collaboration between civil society, parliamentarians, governments,
agencies, NGOs and other actors to ensure follow up on the regional
consultation and the United Nations’ study on violence against children.
§ Governments, international organisations, and NGOs to lend
their support to coalitions and networks of children’s associations to
promote dialogue and information exchange.
§ Governments, international organisations, NGOs and civil society
to put in place a monitoring of the recommendations of the study:
- through regional and sub-regional organisations such as the AU,
ECOWAS (peer review)
- at national level with the involvement of ministers responsible for
protection, youth associations, national committees responsible for the
Committee on the Rights of the Child
§ Religious and community leaders to continue the dialogue at a
local level on violence against children, including violence in schools and
institutions; and to undertake to improve the living conditions and
education of children.
§ Governments and international organisations and NGOs to
strengthen awareness campaigns on violence against children and
strengthen the existing protection networks.
§ UNICEF and other agencies present at the consultation to
coordinate the monitoring of activities.