More
than 100 members of the Children’s National Assembly on Saturday, 23rd
November submitted to the government a call to action titled “The Gambia we Want”. At their second
sitting at the National Assembly in Banjul, the young parliamentarians debated
and submitted the document which calls for stronger action by government and
other stakeholders to protect and fulfil the rights of all children in The
Gambia.
Several
people including government representatives, private sector, civil society
groups, UN agencies, and the media were at the National Assembly to attend the
sitting.
The
declaration was finalized after a nationwide consultation by members of the
Children’s National Assembly. In every region, the children converged to
discuss issues they wanted the government and stakeholders to address in their
area. The resolutions from these regional meetings were compiled in a national
document, a copy of which was submitted to the UN in New York by Lamin Jatta,
the deputy speaker for Upper River Region, Children’s National Assembly, on 20th
November 2019.
Lamin
was supported by UNICEF to represent Gambian children at the UN general
discussions on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child.
Among
the major issues that feature prominently in “The Gambia we Want’ declaration
and debates at the children’s second sitting are education, child labour and
violence against children. Several members called for equal access to quality
education for all children irrespective of their location or economic status,
an end to child labour, and the protection of all children from violence in
homes, schools and elsewhere.
After
the debates, the children read the declaration in the chambers and handed a
copy to the director of Social Welfare Jankoba Jabbi.
In the build up to the event, UNICEF Gambia Representative Sandra Lattouf made an appeal to the government and stakeholders to listen to the children’s demands and act on them.
