The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called on media organisations and journalists in the region to support its efforts at eradicating human trafficking and strengthening child protection measures.
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Humanitarian Development and Gender, Dr. Adrienne Diop, gave the charge, on Monday in Abuja, at the opening of a workshop for the development of a Media and Communication Network and Strategy for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Child Protection.
The statement was made available on Tuesday.
The commissioner, who was represented by the Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs, Dr. Daniel Eklu, gave the roles of the media as agenda setting, holding public officers accountable, advocacy, mobilisation of the society and promoting alliances to achieve the desired results in these important areas.
She underlined the leadership role the media could play in articulating a common vision “for our children and other vulnerable persons and mobilising the state and society towards securing improvements in the quality of life of our citizens.”
She said the decision of the Commission to organise the workshop “illustrates the critical importance of the Press as the Fourth Estate of the Realm in dealing with development issues and moving our region forward into an age of development, peace and prosperity.”
The Commissioner noted that children in West Africa were exposed to various evils, ranging from “sexual abuse and exploitation to violence in other forms, conflicts, disability, neglect, HIV/AIDS, child labour and child trafficking to mention a few,” adding that child protection situation in the region has a direct bearing on the trafficking problem.
The vulnerabilities that result in child trafficking, she said, “are also incidented for other types of child protection concerns,” noting that “the vulnerable child more often than not becomes a vulnerable young adult.”
The Commissioner enumerated the initiatives taken by the Commission in dealing with human trafficking and child protection over the years, through various instruments involving Member States as well as a 2006 Joint Action Plan between ECOWAS and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and the Multilateral Cooperation Agreement on the Combat of Human Trafficking between West and Central Africa.
“ECOWAS has also a Child Policy dealing with child protection, while child protection elements have been integrated into the regional Employment Policy with a Child Labour Regional Action Plan under implementation.
“In 2010, the Commission also adopted a policy on Protection and Assistance to Victims of Human Trafficking and Guidelines for Protection, as well as for Support and Assistance to Witnesses in the same year,” she added.
The Commissioner urged participants at the three-day workshop to come up with suggestions or recommendations that would enrich and strengthen these regional initiatives.
In his opening remarks, the Acting Director of Communications, Mr. Sunny Ugoh, referred to the recent report, which put the figure of persons under slavery across the world at some 30 million and the socio-economic burden on West Africa.
He also mentioned the hundreds of people reportedly dying in desperate attempts to migrate to Europe, including from West Africa, and solicited the strong support of the media in fighting the dual scourges of human trafficking and child abuse in the region.
Mr. Ugoh specifically urged the workshop participants to support the development of an effective media and communication strategy as well as the establishment of a functional network that can be used to address the issue of human trafficking and child protection in the region.
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