NPC, Dallaire Institute Launch Working Group to Protect Children from Armed Violence

The National Peace Council (NPC), in collaboration with the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security, has inaugurated a Multi-Stakeholder Working Group on the Implementation of the Vancouver Principles in Ghana, to strengthen Ghana’s efforts to prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed violence.

The two-day inaugural meeting, held in Accra, is aimed at strengthening institutional coordination and developing practical mechanisms to protect children from violence, exploitation, violent extremism and terrorism.

The initiative forms part of efforts to build a prevention-focused and child-sensitive peace and security framework that links community-level early warning mechanisms with national policy and strategic action.

Speaking at the opening on Thursday, the Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, called for a forward-looking and practical approach to emerging threats confronting children and young people.

As the elected person of the Working Group, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings urged members to adopt an anticipatory rather than reactive approach by identifying vulnerabilities early, strengthening early warning systems and integrating child protection into security policies, training, planning and operations.

She noted that conflicts in parts of the Sahel could have implications beyond conflict zones through displacement, trafficking and exploitation, increasing the vulnerability of young people to recruitment into armed violence.

Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said effective prevention required stakeholders to anticipate threats before they escalate and to deepen collaboration among institutions responsible for peace, security and child protection.

The Executive Secretary of the NPC, Dr George Amoh, said there was a need for a sustained mechanism to link early warning signals from communities to national policy and strategic interventions.

He said the protection of children must become an explicit and integral part of Ghana’s peace and security architecture, adding that internalising the Vancouver Principles would strengthen the country’s prevention and protection mechanisms.

The Project Director at the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security, Mr Arsene Mukendi Tshidimu, said young people and communities needed to be equipped with the knowledge and tools to identify and respond to risks before they developed into violence.

He said the initiative reinforced the need for stakeholders to shift from reactive responses to prevention, while strengthening collaboration to protect children and young people from recruitment and use in armed violence.

Launched in Canada in 2017, the Vancouver Principles comprise 17 political commitments aimed at protecting children in United Nations peacekeeping operations and preventing their recruitment and use by armed forces and armed groups.

The establishment of the Working Group follows a series of engagements that began in March 2026 under the Youth Peace Ambassadors Programme in Ayawaso East (Nima) and Gushegu Municipality (Kpatinga).

The programme engaged young people from identified conflict hotspots on conflict prevention, child protection, the Vancouver Principles, and Early Warning to Early Action (EW2EA).

Judith Twumwaa, ISD