EXCELLENCIES
HOUNARABLE MINSTERS
HOUNARABLE SENATORS
HOUNARABLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS
DISTINGUISHED LADIES AND GENTLEMAN:

It gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome you, our distinguished and honoured guests present here today. I am particularly delighted that you are here to discuss issues affecting our children in conflict situations and how we could save their future by letting them discover once more their childhood.

Let me, in doing so, express my gratitude on behalf of the Government and people of Sierra Leone to the Government of Italy for conceiving the idea of hosting this auspicious conference in our country. We in Sierra Leone are pleased that the Government of Italy chose Sierra Leone as the venue for such an important conference. The choice of Sierra Leone for such a meeting came as no surprise. Our experience in eleven years of conflict and the adverse effect it has had on our human resources particularly on our children qualifies this country as an appropriate venue for holding this conference.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

Sierra Leone has a lot of experience to share with other countries in this matter. Africa, West Africa in particular, has witnessed in recent times some of the most intractable and gruesome forms of violence in the world. Combatants involved in these conflicts have not only taken the form of militias, bandit groups and mercenaries but have actually forcibly recruited child soldiers into their ranks. For over a decade Sierra Leonean children as well as those in neighbouring countries like Liberia have known nothing but war; they have grown up listening to the sounds of gunfire, bombs and high explosives: they have participated in some of the most gruesome scenes of warfare ever to have been witnessed in the world, so much so that I wonder whether all of them have now sufficiently undergone the psychological healing from the trauma of that war. They lost their chance to participate in the ordinary pleasures of childhood, to attend school or even be considered as children. Many of them have opted to become mercenaries travelling within the sub-region and even beyond because they know no other trade except that of war. That is why, we as a region, must find a solution to the problems connected with and flowing from the circumstances in which they found themselves. Our children were the most vulnerable and they suffered both as victims and as perpetrators. Some were abducted and forced to take up arms while others were amputated, tortured, separated from their parents, sexually abused, deprived of education and access to medical facilities.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

One of the most adverse by-products of that war is the effect it had on the attitude, mentality, behaviour and even language of our children. Perhaps they now need, for their re-orientation, some educational tools or visual aid materials which would facilitate such re-orientation of their minds and thinking and help them in resuming their proper position in society by acting and thinking once more as children.

The availability of such aids is not easily accessible to or affordable by some of the affected countries. The need for such aids is even greater in the case of children who lost both parents and close family members. It must be stated here that the human mind is a powerful instrument in the formation of the individual and it should be always directed in the proper course especially in developing countries where skilled manpower is scarce and is necessary for the development of such countries.

The cause of most of these conflicts is to a large extent related to the issues of bad governance such as political marginalization, greed, corruption, non-transparent elections, religious intolerance, and ethnic cleansing. These unfortunate developments have not only impacted negatively on the economies of countries in the sub-region but also on our children and their future.

In the last decade, civil wars have set ablaze a number of countries in West Africa including our country Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger and more recently la Cote d'Ivoire, thus adversely affecting the children and the future of these countries.

It is for this reason that my Government continues to take the position that the promotion of human rights and the tacit application of fundamental freedoms lies within our national interest and indeed the national interest of every state. This is so because states that protect human rights are those best able to secure peace, promote economic development, create opportunities for employment, especially of the youth combatant, international terrorism and crime, and avoid humanitarian crises.

The Government of Sierra Leone remains committed to democratic principles, the promotion of good governance, the rule of law, public accountability and transparency, the negation of the culture of impunity and propagation of gender equality. We do so because we believe that democracy promotes individual rights and freedoms and is a means for every one to benefit from being a citizen of a state, which is part of a globalized world. We value the human kind, particularly its potential to improve the quality of life for human beings. To waste that potential or retard its development is an unpardonable error which all nations should strive to prevent.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have witnessed that democratically governed nations are more likely to secure peace, deter aggression, expand open markets, promote economic development, rule responsibly, and improve human health. Democratic principles, such as the rule of law and accountability do not only protect the rights of citizens from unjust or capricious actions of government but also provide the stable, secure climate that encourages investment and economic growth. The absence of these strong traditions will inevitably deter civil society to flourish, discourage sustainable development, completely prohibit adequate checks on executive and legislative power, and dissolve the legal foundations for free and fair electoral and political processes.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

Because of our consciousness and sensitivity to the consequences of conflicts particularly on our children, we took measures at the end of our war to put in place mechanisms to address such consequences. Some of the measures include the creation of a National Commission for War Affected Children (NaCWAC). By an Act of Parliament in January 2001, that commission was established to advocate and facilitate the implementation of international norms and standards on the rights and protection of war-affected children. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, in liaison with the other child protection agencies like UNICEF, has been working with these agencies to meet the welfare and protection needs of our women and children. Both agencies ensure that the concerns of our children in general are translated into policies, priority setting and resource allocations at the highest political level.

A number of priority areas were identified for Government's intervention. These included child rights advocacy and monitoring of child rights violation, street children and juvenile justice, family tracing, reunification and reintegration of separated children, demobilization and reintegration of child ex-combatants. Those processes were successfully completed in the DDR programme by December last year and emergency response programme for refugee and returnee children from neighbouring countries. Government has also been very supportive of the efforts of local and international organizations in addressing child rights issues. To this end, IMATT and UNAMSIL have been particularly helpful in restructuring our security forces and providing them with training in human rights education and international humanitarian law, while UNICEF has facilitated children's programmes precisely aimed at bringing the best out of these children.

Because of the many instances of human rights violation especially against children, Government with the support of its bilateral and multilateral partners put in place mechanisms and established structures to address the many human rights violations committed at all levels in the Sierra Leone society. These include the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which has completed its work and submitted its report. The Government White Paper on this is now at an advance stage of preparation in consultation with the UN Commission for Human Rights. Also, the United Nations backed Special Court is currently trying those who bear the greatest responsibility for gross human rights violation committed during the war. The National Commission for Democracy and Human Rights is teaching human rights in schools and sensitizing the public through the media, music and drama on human rights and related issues.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

In our commitment to the International Community's effort at child protection, Sierra Leone has signed and adopted a number of international instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child; The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; Optional Protocol on the Convention of the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, and the enactment of the 1989 Adoption Act. The Law Reform Commission is currently reviewing our laws in order to ensure that they prohibit all forms of violence against women and children. Parliament has enacted legislation the object of which is to prevent the recruitment of children into the army or the use of children for any combat activity. The policy of Government is not to recruit children below the age of 18 into the Army.

To encourage parents to send their children to school, my Government has also declared and now provides free education for all school going children at the primary level and provides books and other school materials for pupils. The ultimate aim is to provide free education to all our school going children. The education of the girl child is particularly of interest to my Government. For this reason centres have been opened for promoting the education of the girl child at the community level.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, with our experience in conflict, in spite of our limited resources to adequately address the consequences flowing from such conflicts, the Government and People of Sierra Leone believe that this is not the time for our region and indeed the entire continent of Africa to start tearing each other apart. By avoiding dialogue and engaging in conflicts we will not only be destroying the meagre resources we have but subjecting our children to misery and suffering. The effects as we have seen and witnessed transcend national and international boundaries. As leaders of today, it is our responsibility to come together and iron out our differences in an amicable manner for peace and stability to prevail in our region and indeed the world at large so that a better future could be ensured for the children of the world.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

I should note that the World Food Programme (WFP) has been extremely helpful in providing assistance to our displaced population as well as refugees in this country. We therefore appreciate their participation in this particular Conference. We are grateful for their continued support in their traditional areas of assistance to Sierra Leone. We welcome their intention to renew their assistance to the School Feeding programme. However, in keeping with our policy to ensure that no Sierra Leonean goes to bed hungry by 2007, we believe that WFP can play a pivotal role in the implementation of this policy by arranging to buy whatever surplus food may be available in Sierra Leone in support of programmes in Sierra Leone and other countries. This will certainly provide the much needed markets as an incentive to our farmers. In addition to this, where there is a shortfall of funding to keep feeder roads in serviceable conditions, we also suggest that they consider the introduction of food-for-work programmes in Sierra Leone to help farmers with the transportation of their farm inputs and farm products.

In this endeavour, we continue to look forward to our international partners for proactive cooperation so that our sub-region would be able to shape and move our children from war to the classroom and from crisis to full recovery, with a strong and vibrant economy for them to build on. I believe that it is in this light that we should evaluate the Italian initiative on the subject matter of this Conference. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to once more express my particular appreciation to the Italian Government, especially the high level delegation consisting of top public officials and dignitaries, the organizers of this conference, and participants from other countries for coming to Sierra Leone to join in identifying solutions affecting our children in this sub-region.

May your deliberations be blessed with success.

I thank you.