wfn.org | LWF on Sexual Exploitation of Refugee Children in West Africa

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Statement from the Lutheran World Federation on Team's
Investigations Concerning Sexual Exploitation of Refugee Children
in West Africa

A Lutheran World Federation (LWF) team to West Africa to
investigate alleged sexual exploitation of refugee children by
among others, humanitarian workers concluded its two week mission
that involved visits with LWF-related programs as well as member
churches.

The initiative was taken following the end February release of a
report of an assessment mission by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Save the Children - United
Kingdom (SC-UK) on sexual violence and exploitation of refugee
children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. By sending its own
team into the region, the LWF also aims at developing a strategy
to work with other organizations to address the issues raised in
the UNHCR/SC-UK report.

A report following the March 8-20 assessment by the five-person
LWF team is being finalized. The group was headed by LWF Council
member Ms. Ermina Freytag, North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Germany, and included Ms. Suzannah Telewoda, Lutheran
Church in Liberia (LCL). The LWF Department for World Service
(DWS) staff persons on the team were Mr. John Damerell, Geneva
secretariat coordinator for program implementation, and two
country representatives-Dr. Colette Bouka Coula, Ethiopia, and Mr.
Robert Wadell, Kenya.

Liberia was the first country visited by the LWF team, where it
spent seven days, stayed four days in Sierra Leone, concluding
with Guinea, another four days. In all three countries meetings
were held with representatives from local authorities, UN
organizations, LWF member churches and LWF/DWS field programs and
operations. Field visits were made to the various refugee and
internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps managed by LWF/DWS in
Liberia and Sierra Leone. Due to logistical constraints, such
visits were not possible in Guinea. Instead, discussions were held
with key LWF/DWS program personnel in the capital Conakry.

The presence of the team in West Africa was seen as a strong sign
of support and solidarity by the LWF towards its field programs
and member churches in the region. The team made efforts to
understand the context within which the LWF/DWS field programs and
operations function while reviewing systems, procedures and
practices to ensure the protection of refugee and
internally-displaced women and children.

The team took note of concerns raised about the UNHCR/SC-UK survey
itself and handling of information, but kept focussed on the issue
of alleged sexual exploitation of refugee children. In Liberia for
example, specific allegations were made against one LWF/DWS
refugee education assistance project, implemented in partnership
with the UNHCR. Although the project was concluded by the end of
last year-quite some time before the UNHCR/SC-UK report reached
the public-and the staff, except for the female coordinator, are
no longer LWF/DWS employees, LWF has taken the issue very
seriously. In its recommendations, the LWF team will point to
steps that need to be taken to ensure that appropriate systems and
procedures are in place, not only in West Africa but worldwide in
all LWF/DWS field programs and emergency operations.

During the mission, the team became acutely aware that while
trying to offer realistic and practical solutions including
immediate, mid-term and longer term recommendations, lack of
adequate resources, especially funding, could compromise the
extent to which the overall situation could be improved.

The final report of the LWF mission will include recommendations
specific to the LWF/DWS programs in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone, and overall general proposals for all other country
programs. Recommendations will also be addressed to member
churches. Two LWF member churches were a direct focus for the
team's assessment, the LCL and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Sierra Leone. There is no LWF member church in Guinea.

Recommendations will also focus on LWF's partnership especially
with the UNHCR, other bodies in the UN system, and non
governmental organizations. The aim is to address the systemic
issues highlighted by the UNHCR/SC-UK report, and the global
implications of these concerns in similar situations in other
parts of the world. At the field level all DWS programs and staff
are seeking to collaborate with the UN refugee body on the
development of a UNHCR Action Plan and its future implementation.

LWF Council youth member Mr. Paul M. Kamau, Kenya Evangelical
Lutheran Church, participated in a delegation of Action by
Churches (ACT) International, also in West Africa early March to
investigate the issues raised in the UNHCR/SC-UK report. The
team's scope was beyond LWF's programmatic responsibility for
humanitarian assistance, and included ecumenical partnerships. ACT
was founded by the LWF and World Council of Churches.

Geneva
12 April 2002

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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