The
Child Protection Alliance (CPA) with funding from Save the Children
International organised a workshop for members of the Regional Technical
Advisory Committees and the Multi-disciplinary Facilitation Teams of the
Central River and Upper River Regions on 18 and 19 July 2017.
The workshop was meant to popularise and
disseminate the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Concluding
Observations and the UPR Recommendations.
The
Gambia ratified the CRC on 8 August 1990. One of its obligations is to be
submitting reports on the implementation of the Convention periodically to the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
On 28 October 2011, the Committee on the
Rights of the Child received The Gambia’s combined Second and Third Periodic
Report on the CRC which it examined on 15 January 2015 and adopted the
Concluding Observations on 30 January 2015.
Prior
to the adoption of the Concluding Observations, there was a plenary session
between the Committee and the State delegation, led by the Director of Social
Welfare, in which the progresses, achievements and challenges of child rights
promotion, protection and fulfillments by The Gambia were extensively
discussed.
The
Concluding Observations are a set of observations and recommendations on the
status of the CRC’s implementation by the State Party, the progress achieved
and the main areas which would require improvement.
They
are not criticisms of a State Party’s efforts in protecting and fulfilling the
rights of children within its jurisdiction.
Facilitating
the discussions on the Concluding Observations for the Gambia, Lamin K. Saidy
of CPA highlighted the recommendations which include the establishment of the
Ministry for Children’s Affairs; adequate budgetary allocations to health and
social welfare; intensifying the fight against child sex tourism and
discrimination against children born out of wedlock.
It
also recommended physically challenged children, girls and women; promotion of
child participation; intensifying birth registration of all children;
monitoring information accessible to children in internet cafes and video
clubs; legal prohibition of corporal punishment and awareness campaign on
positive discipline.
Recommendations
are also made on other broad issues such as education, breastfeeding; violence
against children; adolescent health; health and health services; children in
street situation; and sale, trafficking and abduction.
Mr
Saidy acknowledged that some recommendations have already been fulfilled by the
State such as the legal prohibition of FGM and child marriage; the finalisation
and implementation of the National Child Protection Strategy and the Social
Protection Policy; and the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities.
While
the implementation of the Concluding Observations is the responsibility of the
State, civil society has an important role to play in monitoring the
implementation of these recommendations.
The Concluding Observations is a useful tool
for child rights advocacy as well as one for measurement of government
accountability.
The
Gambia is expected to submit its combined fourth to seventh periodic reports by
6 March 2021 which should also include information on the follow-up to the
present concluding observations.
Speaking
at the forum in Jarra Soma, Lower River Region, the Regional Officer for SOS
Children’s Villages, Ebrima Kinteh, commended CPA for organising such an event.
He said that everybody particularly the
Government has an obligation to fulfill children’s rights at all levels.
He
urged his colleague members on the Technical Advisory Committee to factor
children issues in their budgets and programs.
Jawara
Biai of the Governor’s Office, Central River Region reaffirmed Government’s
commitment to child protection, citing the numerous laws and policies in place.
He
challenged all TAC/MDFTs members to disseminate the information.
