It was a moment of sober reflection for members of the Economic Community of West African Parliament at an Inter-Parliamentary Union Day event tagged “Eradication of Child Labour: Taking Stock and Sustaining the Commitment of the ECOWAS Parliament”.
The Parliamentarians were charged to go beyond their political gains and think widely on the ways of securing the next generation as they represent the world’s future.
Speaking at the sideline of the ECOWAS Parliament’s first ordinary session in Abuja, a child’s rights advocate, and 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi, charged Members of the Parliament to bring out the champion in them rather than suppressing it so as to become custodians of the next generation.
He lamented that millions of children are forced into hard labour and child trafficking annually because member states have been unable to take responsibility for the voiceless children, calling for more investments and political will to guarantee a safer generation.
The Secretary-General of Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, Mr Martin Chungong, reiterated the union’s readiness to supporting ECOWAS in its efforts to combat child labour saying that addressing child trafficking and labour should be given priority.
Earlier the Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States Parliament, Dr Sidie Tunis, disclosed that the Economic Community of West African States and IPU, are collaborating in a partnership that includes preserving and promoting children’s rights in order to mitigate all forms of abuse of children in the region.
Dr Tunis, who was represented by the second Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Boukary Chaibou, noted that not all functions performed by children can be described as hard labour but that since the inauguration of the fifth legislature, concerted efforts by Inter-Parliamentary Union and partners on child labour, children’s rights were being strengthened.
The Sub-Sahel region has in recent times, been facing challenges of child labour and trafficking, terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and poverty owing to the illegal possession of firearms and light weapons, which the United Nations Children Fund said accounts for the two hundred million out-of-school children.
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