Engaging security sector duty bearers on reporting child rights violations

In Somalia the people most likely to encounter a child rights violation first are often the people a community is most cautious about approaching. Police, army, intelligence and ATMIS personnel operate at exactly the points where children are detained, displaced or recruited.

This engagement worked on both sides of that gap at once. BADEF held consultations with security sector representatives from NISA, the Somali National Army, the Somali Police Force and ATMIS, and separately convened community dialogues with civil society organisations, religious leaders, youth leaders and residents of Mogadishu and Baidoa.

More than 100 security sector duty bearers and 100 community stakeholders took part. Eight radio spot messages on child protection were produced and broadcast, carrying the same content well beyond the rooms where the dialogues were held.

BADEF assessment afterwards was candid. One day engagements are too short to resolve what is a genuinely difficult relationship in a conflict setting. That finding shaped what followed, a case for sustained awareness work and for advocacy directed at child protection legislation rather than single convenings.