Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - A three-day training programme on Child Rights and Protection for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) opened in Accra with a call on them to always protect children from all sorts of abuses before during and after conflicts.

Brigadier General John Fukuo, Director General in Charge of Training, Ghana Armed Forces, said military personnel mostly came into contact with the civilian population before, during and after conflicts and had heard stories from war victims, especially children, of various degrees of abuses.

"Most military personnel have performed duties as peacekeepers in various countries where we have seen the effect of war at first hand. We have also heard harrowing stories being told to us either by the victims of war who are mostly children of sexual abuse, physical molestation and victimization or by our colleagues who have either had or seen such atrocities," he said. He said the nature of conflicts had changed significantly in the past 50 years with civilians now being the overwhelming majority of victims while children were increasingly becoming vulnerable to the effects of war.

The training programme, the first in the series to be run by the Child Protection Unit of the GAF in all garrisons of the GAF, was to make personnel conversant with the legal instruments covering child rights and child protection and also define their responsibilities and obligations towards children. Thirty personnel from the Air Force, the Army and the Navy are attending the programme which also seeks to provide them with the basic information on child rights and needs, strengthen and upgrade military trainers' skills in interactive methods. Brig. Gen. Fukuo said it was through only such training programmes and education that child abuse and protection could be prevented during conflicts.

He said children in the West African sub-region constituted about 52 per cent of the total population in the region and the impact of conflicts on that population should not be taken lightly. "I believe it was in the light of this that the Economic Community of West African States also entrenched the issue of child rights by adopting the Accra Declaration on Children Affected by war in April 2000 by acknowledging the need to ensure the welfare and protection of children's rights before, during ad after conflicts," he said. He said that was amply reflected in the protocols signed after the Accra Declarations asking member countries to include the issue of child rights and protection in the curricular of their military institutions and educating military personnel on the issue to save themselves and future generations yet unborn. Lt-Col. Edem Fiawoo, Acting Director, Legal Service, said due to the numerous conflicts in West Africa, military personnel like all adults, had a moral duty to understand and try to protect the rights of the most vulnerable during and after conflicts. He said when soldiers were made aware of the relevant laws and what was expected of them, they could help improve the rights of children in conflict areas. Lt. Col. Fiawoo said the programme was just appropriate due to the role played by the GAF in peacekeeping in conflict areas and urged the participants to make good of the opportunity.