During a panel organized by the NGO Independent Commission for Human Rights-Africa (IACHR), on the sidelines of the 57th session of the Human Rights Council, the focus was on the challenges that hinder the right to development in certain regions of the world, including the phenomenon of children forcibly recruited into armed militias, which raises deep concerns.
On this subject, the president of the International Center for Research on the Prevention of Child Soldiers, Abdelkader Filali, revealed the conclusions of the latest report of this NGO on child soldiers, the result of a field mission that took the Moroccan expert to several child soldier recruitment camps around the world, notably in the Sahel, Colombia and Kazakhstan.
He documents the fate of children recruited into armed groups before fleeing conflict zones such as Sudan and Yemen, as well as their long and perilous journey to asylum in Europe.
In this report, the center looks back at the opportunities to combat the recruitment of child soldiers, highlighting the beneficial impact of certain South-South cooperation projects, such as the Atlantic Initiative for the Sahel countries.
"It is capable of preventing the Sahel from returning to the dismal fate of certain conflict zones, such as Colombia," he warned, stressing that beyond Africa, the experience of the Atlantic Initiative for the Sahel could serve as an example for other regions.
For his part, Spanish human rights activist, Pedro Ignacio Altamirano, president of the Altamirano Foundation, focused on the situation in the Tindouf camps, denouncing the crimes committed against children enrolled in the ranks of the Polisario militias, and deprived of their basic rights to security, education and even life.
Faced with such a situation, the Spanish activist wondered how one can talk about the right to development, when peace and stability are not envisaged by the leadership of the separatists who are taking the Sahrawi populations hostage.
The President of the Independent Human Rights Network in Geneva, Mr. Lahcen Naji, who moderated the debate of this meeting, placed under the theme "The right to development in Africa and the Middle East", noted for his part that the conflicts raging in several regions of the world represent an obstacle to access to the right to development, particularly in Africa.
According to him, the instability in the Sahara and the Sahel, where terrorist organizations and separatist groups operate and where the rule of law and democracy are struggling to establish themselves firmly, hinders the right of populations to health and socio-economic development.
The President of the NGO Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, Ayman Okaile, highlighted the challenges facing the implementation of the right to development in the Arab world in Africa, citing poverty, armed conflicts, climate change, the population boom and insufficient development financing, among others.
The escalation of conflicts in the Arab region, he said, significantly undermines efforts to implement the right to development, specifying that from 2011 to 2018, conflicts cost States in the region more than $900 billion, notably in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine, while negatively impacting neighboring countries.
In Africa, security fragility represents a major obstacle to access to the right to development, the continent being the scene of growing instability and conflicts in 10 States, he continued, noting that sub-Saharan Africa contains 19 of the 37 most fragile States.
News and events on Western Sahara issue/ CORCAS
| 9/19/2024
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