Media practitioners and civil society organizations in Western Bahr el Ghazal State are urged to disseminate information on child protection in South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal state.
The appeal was made by Samuel Nicola, the state information minister, during a two-day training organized by UNMISS’ child protection section which was attended by 30 participants drawn from media and civil society organizations.
He reiterated the state government’s efforts to improve child protection and asked the attendees to help in delisting the country from the list of countries violating children’s rights.
“Our country may be one of those on the list of the countries recruiting children,” he said. “It may not be true but you as journalists have a role to correct this for the delisting of South Sudan from the list of countries recruiting children because recruitment of children is a violation of child rights.”
Nicola appealed to the workshop participants to create more awareness and disseminate information about children’s rights.
“We have a lot of trust in you and I want to assure you that we are behind you,” he said.
Lucy Maty, one of the participants, who spoke to Radio Tamazuj, said that they had learned a lot about children’s rights and how they are violated.
“I learned a lot of things like the six grave child rights violations and we want to work with all the agencies in South Sudan and especially the government to see how we can stop the violations against children,” she said.
Meanwhile, John Michael, a participant from South Sudan Radio, said the training equipped him with knowledge about how conflict affects children and disabled persons.
“We learned that children and the disabled are the most affected during conflicts, especially in countries like South Sudan,” he said. “So, there should be awareness on child protection and protection of their basic rights.”