Colombia: Jean-Pierre Kezamudru represents the DRC at the First Global Interministerial Conference on the Elimination of Violence against Children

Jean-Pierre Kezamudru, Deputy Minister of National Education and New Citizenship (EDU-NC), is leading a multisectoral delegation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the First Global Interministerial Conference on the Elimination of Violence against Children. The conference kicked off on Thursday, November 8, 2024, in Bogotá, Colombia.

The DRC, represented by the Ministries of National Education and New Citizenship, Gender, Family and Children, Human Rights, Health, and Social Affairs, is participating in this conference as a “solution-oriented country” in efforts to eliminate violence against children.

These proceedings follow the very first Congolese national conference on the elimination of violence against children, held in Kinshasa in October 2024 under the auspices of Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka. During the conference, stakeholders assessed and acknowledged the efforts made, under the leadership of President Félix Tshisekedi, to combat and eradicate violence against children.

Among the progress and commitments made in this area are: the strengthening of the legal framework for child protection, notably through the revision of the Family Code in 2016, which raised the minimum age for marriage from 15 to 18 for both girls and boys; free primary education, which has enabled more than 4.5 million children, especially girls, to return to school; the establishment of complaint management mechanisms and hotlines to encourage children to report any abuse and access the necessary support; the adoption of a holistic approach in establishing medical, legal, socio-economic, and psychological services for survivors of violence, particularly sexual violence; and awareness campaigns on the importance of education and parental and community mobilization to eliminate violence against children.

Beyond all these achievements, the government of the DRC, represented by Deputy Minister Jean-Pierre Kezamudru, intends to further mobilize the partners present at the Bogota conference to support it in its fight to prevent and combat violence against children.

Christian BELLA