As the mandate of the Child Protection Alliance (CPA) and the Voice of the Young are to advocate on issues of common concern affecting children and their well being, the two advocacy groups, on Tuesday, organised a platform of intergenerational dialogue among adults and children, at a ceremony held at the Paradise Suites Hotel, in Kololi.

The platform provided an opportunity for children and young people to engage in a face- to- face dialogue with policy makers, politicians, heads of UN agencies and other leaders on the main issues affecting them, as well as the concerns of adults, to foster a common understanding and consensus on the true substance of child rights and to raise awareness on efforts that the government of The Gambia and its development  partners are making, to realise the rights of children.

In her opening statement, Marie Saine Firdaus, Attorney General and Secretary of State for Justice, disclosed that a lot of problems continue to affect the lives of children. These, she added, included child sexual abuse, exploitation and violence; early and forced marriage; child begging; child labour; female genital mutilation; child delinquency and so on, which they must labour to find solutions for.

According to her, children are also used as child soldiers and wives of senseless adults. She noted that they are sometimes perceived as little children who cannot have a voice, and so cannot contribute positively. This has resulted in adults taking decisions and making choices for and on behalf of children, some of which sometimes are not in their best interest. The children who are daily affected by these problems must be involved in our search for solutions, she said.

“We have made giant strides in The Gambia in promoting and protecting the rights of children in collaboration with our development partners and our friends from the civil society. However, we will not, as a Government, rest on our lorels. We will continue to work tirelessly and ardently towards achieving the rights on protection that we clearly acknowledged as being inherent and inalienable dues of children. We owe this to our children and to ourselves”, SoS Saine Firdaus told the gathering.