Geneva: NGO Denounces Political, Military Exploitation Of Children in Tindouf Camps

An NGO denounced, Thursday in Geneva, the political and military exploitation by the “polisario” of children in the Tindouf camps, in southwestern Algeria, due to Algiers’ negative position to these systematic violations.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the NGO “Promotion of Economic and Social Development” (PDES) noted that children take part in military exercises of the “polisario” which uses them as human shields, stating that in its recent propaganda, the front has boasted of the return to the carrying of weapons, with children participating in military parades.

This is both political and military exploitation of thousands of children in the camps and a clear violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular Article 4 of its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the NGO said.

Although Algerian law enshrines the protection of children victims of armed conflict, the host country remains indifferent to what happens in the Tindouf camps, where the “polisario” enlists thousands of children and deprives them of their right to education, observed PDES, which presented several testimonies of women stating that their children are deprived of a natural childhood and take part in military operations, with adverse effects on both their physical and moral health.

The NGO drew the attention of the UN Secretary-General Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to the fact that these violations can only be identified through the UN monitoring and reporting mechanism, which is non-existent in the Tindouf camps.