Reporting Child Rights Violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo
From Shareideas
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ajedi-ka, a national NGO, relies on a grassroots network of designated individuals to report child rights violations via cell phone. The information is used to conduct follow up and inform international policymakers about violence against children in the country.
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According to a 2006 United Nations report, children continue to be the victims of serious human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including sexual violence, killing, maiming, attacks on schools, and the recruitment and use of children in military groups. Girls were cited as being especially vulnerable to rape, with more than 30,000 survivors of sexual violence reported from mid-2005 to mid-2006.
In 2005, Ajedi-Ka, a national NGO working to promote children’s rights with a focus on those who have been affected by armed conflict, took steps to improve the reporting of child right’s violations through the introduction of mobile phones into its monitoring activities.
Central to Ajedi-Ka’s efforts has been the creation of Village Committees for Child Protection (VCCP) in areas where young people are particularly at-risk. Each VCCP is composed of five members, including a teacher, a representative of the local administration, an elder, a church official, and a business leader.
While the VCCP model proved effective in monitoring violations, communication between village representatives and Ajedi-Ka headquarters was extremely slow. Lack of infrastructure in the region – including public transport and telephones – meant that it could take days for information to reach Ajedi-Ka, typically with VCCP members delivering messages via bicycle.
In April 2005, with assistance from the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, Ajedi-Ka introduced a pilot project, whereby each VCCP was equipped with a cell phone through which they relayed information on child right’s violations to headquarters’ staff. The information was then stored, with decisions made on whether further documentation was necessary. Ajedi-Ka staff then followed up with relevant local authorities to recommend actions to be taken to halt future violations. Each verified case was also entered into a Watchlist database in New York used to inform international policy-makers, including the UN Security Council, about violations against children in the country.
Since the pilot, Ajedi-Ka has worked to address several challenges – for example, the lack of electricity in villages and restrictive calling time due to budgetary limitations. Calling cards are now used to communicate alerts to Ajedi-Ka staff at its headquarters in Ulvira, and solar panels are now being used to recharge phones. Following each reported violation, verification is made through a field investigation and through contacting cell phone holders in the village who are not part of the VCCP.
Ajedi-Ka has collected more than 1,000 cell phone numbers of local citizens whom it hopes to engage in its efforts through sending instant messages; however, it still requires outside expertise to set up this mechanism.
How it was done
Each “Village Committees for Child Protection, (VCCP) has now been equipped with two mobile phones, which they use to call in reports of child rights violations to staff at Ajedi-Ka's headquarters in Ulvira. Given lack of electricity in the area, each Village Committee has also been provided with a solar panel. In the future, Ajedi-Ka hopes to receive assistance in creating a database that will allow it to store information, while protecting the confidentiality of individuals.
