ABUJA, Nigeria — Lawmakers from across West Africa have adopted a landmark resolution aimed at clearing thousands of vulnerable children from the streets and shielding them from a cycle of abuse and trafficking.
The ECOWAS Parliament, meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Thursday, warned that children living in bus parks and markets have become one of the region’s most neglected groups, facing “grave human rights abuses” daily.
The move follows a week of intense deliberations where representatives described the streets of major West African cities as “battlegrounds for survival.”
A Regional Crisis
The resolution, passed during the Parliament’s First Ordinary Session, demands that member states move beyond rhetoric and provide:
- Dedicated Funding: Governments have been urged to set aside specific budgets for child protection.
- Legal Enforcement: A call for tougher action against those who exploit children for forced begging or sexual abuse.
- Essential Services: Ensuring street children receive birth certificates, healthcare, and free education.
Lawmakers stressed that the crisis is deeply rooted in poverty and displacement. To tackle this, they recommended expanding social safety nets for single-parent households and families broken apart by conflict.
Cracking Down on Trafficking
Because many street children are moved across borders by criminal syndicates, the Parliament is pushing for a “harmonised regional framework.”
The plan includes:
- Safe Repatriation: New protocols to return children to their home countries safely.
- Data Tracking: Expanding the ECOWAS Child Rights Information Management System to monitor the movement of minors.
- Information Sharing: Better communication between national police forces to track traffickers.
‘The Backbone of the Future’
The resolution was built on findings from a recent committee meeting in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where lawmakers examined the “parliamentary approach” to child exploitation. They argued that the “Renewed Hope” for the region’s economy cannot be achieved if a generation is left behind on the streets.
The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament is now mandated to transmit these recommendations to the ECOWAS Commission for formal adoption by the region’s ministers.
The session in Abuja is expected to conclude on the 15th of May, with child protection now firmly at the top of the West African political agenda.
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