{30 military, police and civilian personnel from eight Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) Member States have started a three day workshop to develop a standardised Curriculum on Child Protection in the African Union Peace Support Operations. The workshop that is being held at Rwanda Peace Academy (RPA) was organised in partnership with the EASF Secretariat and Save the Children International.}
As it was explained by the RPA Director, Col Jill Rutaremara, the aim of the workshop is to consolidate final comments and recommendations from Member States’ experts for the validation and launch of the Child Rights and Child Protection Peace Support Operations Curriculum.
While opening officially the workshop, the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Mrs Batete Redempta, recalled that civilians, in particular children, are the most affected by consequences of armed conflicts in Africa. “During armed conflicts, children are killed, maimed and traumatized; they become refugees or internally displaced persons, are separated from their families, and subjected to sexual and gender based violence as well as other forms of exploitation and abuse”, she pointed out. Mrs Batete stressed also that during armed conflict, children should be given particular protection, due to their high vulnerability.
Anthony Njoroge, official from Save the Children International said that “the 2014 UN Secretary General report on Children and Armed Conflict, (…) highlights the growing trend of extreme violence purposefully aimed at children in the cause of extremist ideologies and the heavy handed response of some security forces involving acts of violence against civilians and children”. Njoroge explained further that the lack of standardized training resources hampers efforts in building peacekeepers capacity on child protection, an issue the workshop is intended to ultimately fix within EASF Member States’ training Centers.
EASF Member States represented in the Workshop are the Republics of Comoros, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Seychelles and Uganda.
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