Last week, The Dallaire Institute's African Center of Excellence for Children, Peace, and Security in collaboration with the Rwanda National Police Regional Center of Excellence for Gender-Based Violence and Child Abuse hosted a professional development workshop with 25 women police and military officers in the region who gathered to share ideas and lessons learned on their contributions to peacekeeping missions.
The training focused on promoting and protecting the rights of children with particular efforts on preventing the recruitment and use of children in armed violence as part of implementing the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers.
Currently more than 100 countries have endorsed the Vancouver Principles. While Rwanda was the first African country to endorse the Vancouver Principles, other countries have been lagging. As of now, the number of African states that have endorsed the Principles stands at less than 50% of all endorsers.
Speaking at the workshop, Maj Gen (Rtd) Ferdinand Safari, Director of the African Centre of Excellence (ACoE), said that there is need for strong partnership in increasing the number of women military and police officers to advance rights of women and children during armed conflict and armed violence
Recent data from January 2021 shows that in peacekeeping operations women are fewer than five percent of all military personnel, make up 11 percent of personnel in formed police units, and comprise 28 percent of individual police. And yet women's participation improves community engagement and changes the narrative of women's roles in society.
"Women should sit at political and strategic levels of any country as protectors of peace and security. Women are better than men especially in engaging communities, children and women during armed conflict," he said.
The workshop recommended strong early warning system in child violence, governments political will, serving as role models and motivation for more young women to join police and military, capacity building, research, translating laws into local languages among others.
"It is better to share experiences on how the issue is being addressed in different peacekeeping missions because children can be used in a number of ways and women military and police officers must be at the forefront of the implementation of a Children, Peace and Security Agenda," Maj. Gen. Safari said.
During the workshop, Rwandan female military and police officers shared their experiences and lessons with their counterparts from the Ivory Coast and South Sudan.
In line with the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians in Peace Operations and the Vancouver Principles; the workshop focused on the role of female police officers in preventing the recruitment and use of children as soldiers in armed conflict and armed violence. The Rwanda National Police has significantly increased its numbers of female police officers in peacekeeping missions in countries with armed conflicts where children face a risk of all sorts of violence and abuse, including forced recruitment into armed groups.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) in charge of Administration and Personnel, Jeanne Chantal Ujeneza, said that there is need for more women and professional training to protect children in conflict zones and situations of armed violence.
She added that the workshop was important to prepare participants to play a critical role in preventing and addressing child rights violations and responding to the needs of survivors.
"It is quite important to share experiences," she noted.
Reflecting on Rwanda's experience, DIGP Ujeneza noted that the country has been at the forefront of championing both the Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians and the Vancouver Principles on UN peacekeeping, and the prevention of the recruitment and use of child soldiers in armed violence.
"We are aware of how children and women are the most vulnerable in any situation of conflict. Therefore, as women in uniform and peacekeepers, we need to identify and understand the vulnerabilities of children and young people, especially girls, to counteract any push factors that may expose them to any forms of violations such as human trafficking, sexual violence, child labour, child soldiers, indoctrination by terrorist groups and participation in transnational crimes and criminal gangs," she said.
The status of using children in armed conflict
On the African continent, the issue of recruiting and using children in armed conflict is found in different countries including the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, South Sudan, and Somalia.
According to the UN Secretary-General's report of June 2022 on children and armed conflict, the Democratic Republic of Congo is among the countries with the highest number of verified cases of grave violation, where 565 children (487 boys and 78 girls) were recruited and used as soldiers.
In the Central African Republic, a total of 329 children (262 boys, 67 girls), were verified as having been recruited and used, by armed groups, 1,161 children (1,116 boys, 45 girls) were recruited and used by armed groups and government security forces in Somalia, and 129 were recruited in South Sudan
Vancouver Principle 11 implementation
The implementation guidelines for Vancouver Principle 11 calls for increasing the participation of women in all aspects of peace and security, upholding the involvement of women in peace processes, in the negotiation of peace agreements, and in the participation of women in negotiations with children and offering valuable perspectives on the gender dynamics associated with the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
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The implementation of Principle 11 also requires increasing the meaningful participation of women in peacekeeping operations, including in senior positions as well as promoting gender diversity across the cadre of trained Child Protection Focal Points (CPFPs) in UN peacekeeping operations in addition to deploying mixed engagement teams, gender-integrated formed police units (FPUs), or "Gender Strong Units."
For instance, the Dallaire Institute has worked on developing and training women for children, peace, and security (W4CPS) networks in South Sudan and the DRC.
To implement this principle, the Dallaire Institute has noted that there is a need for collecting gender-disaggregated data on relevant national military, police, and civilian organizations, developing strategies to increase the representation of women throughout relevant national military, police, and civilian organizations, including through the development of a National Action Plan.
The Dallaire Institute work in Rwanda is funded by the Germany Federal Foreign Office and other philanthropic donors to advance the Institute's mission of placing children at the heart of peace and security.
