Geneva, Switzerland – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, urged the republic of Gabon to adopt urgent measures to tackle trafficking in children from West and Central Africa into the country, including traditional and cultural factors that exacerbate this phenomenon.

“I am confident that Gabon can become a model for other countries in the region and beyond in the fight against trafficking,” she stressed.

“Although the Government has adopted legislation to combat human trafficking, significant gaps remain,” Ms. Ezeilo said at the end of her official visit to Gabon from 14 to 18 May. “There are a number of challenges that must be addressed by the Government if it is to succeed in effectively combating trafficking in persons and protecting the human rights of trafficked victims of all ages.”

The rights expert underscored that current laws limit protection to victims under the age of 18 and do not provide for all forms of exploitation including labor and sexual exploitations, slavery and removal of organs.

“I urge the Government to expand the scope of trafficking, to explicitly widen the forms and scope of protection to both trafficked women and men as per the Palermo Protocol, aimed at preventing, suppressing and punishing trafficking in persons.”

Gabon is a destination and transit country for trafficked persons from the sub-region of West and Central Africa. Boys and girls below the age of 18 predominantly from Benin, Mali and Togo are attracted to coming in the country, which is seen as one of the wealthy economies in the region, with prospects and opportunities for work.

“Most common forms of trafficking in Gabon are domestic work for young girls, servitude, and to some extent forced and early marriage; while for boys, work in the informal sector including auto mechanics and hard labor are common,” she said while noting that root causes of trafficking, include poverty and traditional practices, especially in West Africa, of sending children to live with relatives and demand for domestic workers by rich Gabonese families.

“The trend, forms and manifestation of trafficking in persons are not well-understood in Gabon, and there is a general lack of awareness and knowledge of trafficking in persons beyond child trafficking for exploitative labor,” Ms. Ezeilo stressed. “As a result, other victims of trafficking remain invisible and unrecognized by not only the general population, but also the victims themselves and the competent authorities.”

The human rights expert called on the authorities to help improve the understanding of the nature and scale of the problem of trafficking in persons in the country, through the collection of reliable national data to determine the prevalence rate, forms, trends and manifestation of human trafficking, including of children and women.

“With a coastal border of more than 800kms and a porous border with 3 countries, Gabon requires good cooperation with its neighbors to fight the phenomenon of trafficking,” she said, stressing that so far the signing of agreements with neighboring states have not materialized in spite of initiative of the government.

The Special Rapporteur also expressed her concern about the absence of a specific visa program to enable victims of trafficking to remain legally in the country, as well as for the safe return and repatriation of victims of trafficking. In her view, there is always a risk of re-trafficking and re-victimization, especially for trafficked children because family members are implicated in the exploitation of victims of trafficking.

During her five-day mission to Libreville, Ms. Ezeilo met with government officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Interior and Defense. She also met with the Public prosecution, the Police’s service for protection of minors, the monitoring committee in charge of implementing the platform of action on trafficking of children for the purpose of labor exploitation, the National Commission for Human Rights and civil society organizations.

“More importantly,” she stressed, “I met with victims themselves, including foreign girls during my visits to the government run Angondjé Shelter and two other shelters for girls and boys run by civil society organizations.”

Image Courtesy of    Brad Ruggles

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A new report by 13 leading international and Congolese civil society groups asks the international community and Congolese government to urgently agree upon a new deal to reform the Congolese military. The report argues that the lack of political will to reform the security sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) risks not only billions of dollars of international aid but also the stability of the country.

“At the end of the day, many of Congo’s seemingly intractable conflict-related problems can be traced back to dysfunctional security services: the army, police and courts. The Congolese government has failed to take concrete action to reform these vital institutions,” said Emmanuel Kabengele, National Coordinator of the Congolese civil society Network for Security Sector Reform and Justice.

“Yet the international community has continued to sustain the government, investing money and effort with no actual return. It’s high time that donors demand that Congo engage in real army reform.”

The report, Taking a Stand on Security Sector Reform, was completed after extensive research and interviews in DRC and donor countries. It argues that the army not only fails to provide security but actively preys upon the population, being one of the major perpetrators of human rights violations in the country.

“An effective security sector – organized, resourced, trained and vetted – is essential to solving problems from recruitment of child soldiers, internal displacement and rape, to economic growth or the trade in conflict minerals,” says the report.

The report concludes that the main reason for the failure of army reform in DRC is a lack of political will from parts of the Congolese government – notably those elements which have benefited from endemic corruption.

“The very people in senior positions of the government and military who are responsible for effecting reform continue to profit from the current army, either in raking off salaries of servicemen, kickbacks, or involvement in illegal mining, trade or protection rackets” said Dismas Kitenge, President of the Congolese organization, Groupe Lotus and Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

The paper underscores the critical role the international community must play. In just five years, the report documents that donor countries alone have invested more than $14 billion into the DRC.

Yet only 1%, or $140 million, was spent on security sector reform. International aid is now equivalent to nearly half of the DRC’s annual budget. As such, donors have considerable leverage over Congo. Yet despite this enormous investment, the DRC has actually gone backwards. The DRC is ranked last in the world on the UN’s main development index.

“The international community’s investment in DRC has yielded poor results. Numerous armed groups send thousands of child soldiers into battle, and women and children continue to bear the brunt of violence. Adequate health care and personal security remain the exception rather than the rule,” said Ben Affleck, Actor, Director and Founder of Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI).

“Donors must work to convince the Congolese government to undertake drastic military reform. Unless a new course of action is adopted, we run the risk of losing much of the investment that has already been made.”

The costs of accepting the status quo are high, for the Congolese people but also for the international community. In addition to the traditional donors – US, EU, UK, France and Belgium – key partners such as China, South Africa, and Angola all have a vested interest in the stability and long-term prosperity of the DRC.

“The new government must seize the opportunity to refocus attention on implementing sustainable and effective reform,” said Pascal Kambale from the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). “Now is the time for the international community and Congolese government to work together to reform the police and army so that Congo is capable of protecting its own civilians.”

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The Board and Executive of the national Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) has called on the U.S. government to give more attention to supporting the African Union of 54 nations in negotiating for peace in the militia‐torn areas of East and Central Africa.

“We have listened to many African people from the war‐torn areas of Congo, South Sudan, Uganda, and Central African Republic,” said David Wiley, spokesperson for ACAS, “and they are calling for negotiations and peaceful reintegration of the militias into their communities. Many are saying they do not want a widening of the war with national armies who often commit atrocities backed by U.S. troops or advisors that could continue the conflict for decades.”

The Africanist scholars said they are encouraged that so many Americans are concerned about Africa and want to help with the disorder of the militias there. However, the ACAS says:

“… After consulting with scholars of Uganda and Central Africa and with other experts in the region, we are deeply concerned that the recent campaign in the United States to pursue and arrest Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), could have dangerous unintended consequences.

Expanding U.S. military operations with the Ugandan army to capture Kony could increase the militarization of the region and lead to deaths of civilians who are caught in the crossfire or become targets of retaliatory attacks by the LRA, as has occurred in the past.”

“Indeed,” Wiley noted, “the Ugandan army itself has been guilty of atrocities and abuse of civilians both in Uganda, probably killing more people over the years than the LRA, and now in the Central African Republic while chasing Kony again.”

Dr. Mahmoud Mamdani, Ugandan director of the Makerere University Institute of Social Research, said the 70 million plus who have watched the Invisible Children video need to realize that the LRA – both the leaders and the children pressed into their service – are not an alien force but sons and daughters of the soil. “The solution is not to eliminate them physically, but to find ways of integrating them into (Ugandan) society.” Mahmoud commented.

Instead of military action, ACAS is calling on President Obama and the Congress to support and take the lead of the African Union (AU) and its new Special Representative for Counter‐ Terrorism. ACAS also urges Obama “to take a strong stand against the use of child soldiers by fully complying with the U.S. Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2009 by prohibiting military assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other governments until they meet specific benchmarks,” as urged by Amnesty International.

“Much of Africa,” Wiley noted, “is awash with AK‐47s and other cheap small arms, light weapons, and mines, the munitions of terrorist militias.” So ACAS also is calling on the Administration, “…to actively seek an effective United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to end irresponsible trade in weapons, munitions, and other military and policing equipment that often inflict misery and carnage on people, especially in Africa. “

Donations by Americans are very much needed for the pressing needs of these former child soldiers, the raped, and the displaced,” Wiley commented, pointing out that the “excellent programs” of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children’s Fund.

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In an effort to avert a large-scale loss of life due to malnutrition and disease, UNICEF is ramping up its operations in eight countries in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa. An initial $67 million is urgently needed for UNICEF’s relief operations to save children’s lives and prevent a humanitarian disaster from unfolding.

It is estimated that across the region more than one million children will suffer in 2012 from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition that requires immediate treatment. The period between harvests, also known as the “lean season,” is expected to arrive earlier this year than is typical.

Throughout the Sahel, poor rainfall has exacerbated food insecurity and loss of livestock, increasing malnutrition. The rise in food prices is also affecting the ability of households to buy food and other necessities and increasing the strain on their livelihoods, jeopardizing children’s lives.

“When humanitarian agencies and the international community are able to act in time to prevent disaster, they can save a tremendous number of lives,” said Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “The lessons of the emergency in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa are crystal clear: when the warning signs of a crisis are there, as they are now in the Sahel, we need the resources to respond immediately to prevent death and human suffering. We are determined to avoid a catastrophe for children and their families.”

The Sahel nutrition crisis and UNICEF’s emergency response cover the entire countries of Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal. Niger, where an estimated 331,000 children will face severe acute malnutrition this year, is the hardest-hit. UNICEF’s response will focus on the treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition, together with emergency efforts in health, water, sanitation and hygiene, HIV, education, and child protection.

Under-nutrition poses the greatest risk factor for mortality and morbidity among young children, accounting for at least 35 percent of all child deaths per year in the region. While it is crucial to combat malnutrition across the Sahel in order to save lives, an effective response also needs to tackle the underlying and structural causes of malnutrition.

Malnourished children are more likely to fall pretty to infectious disease compared to non-malnourished children, as they have weaker immune functions. In turn, infectious disease lowers a child’s nutritional status, thus spurring a vicious cycle of malnutrition and disease.

Past experience in the region shows that in times of emergency, women and children face multiple protection risks. As population movements increase during the lean season, so does exposure to violence, abuse and neglect.

In addition, as part of their survival strategies, children from vulnerable households may be forced to drop out of school in order to work in agriculture, mining and other economic activities. Boys may be sent to beg in the streets of towns and cities, and girls may get involved in petty trading or domestic work to support their families.

Working in the Sahel for decades, UNICEF increased its delivery of life-saving interventions to more than 700,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition across the region last year and mounted a massive response to save lives during the food crises in 2005 and 2010.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/julien_harneis/

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