Workshop held in Bamako on design of scientific articles related to child slavery
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The Donkosira Association (Path of Knowledge), in collaboration with Wikipedia-Mali, organized a two-day training session on the design of scientific articles on child slavery.
The event formed part of the celebration of the World Day against Child Slavery, instituted on 16 April 1996 by human rights organizations, PANA learnt from the association.
The objective of this celebration is to eradicate all contemporary forms of slavery involving children such as human trafficking, sexual exploitation, child labour, forced marriages of children and their recruitment in armed conflicts.
The Day aims to raise awareness and to encourage governments, international organizations and civil society to work together to eradicate these practices.
"The situation of child victims of slavery is particularly worrying in our countries," stressed the representative of the Donkosira Association, Ms Assa Waly Diallo, adding that these children are also victims of trafficking because they are used as forced labourers, prostitutes or are exploited in other illegal industries.
Ms Diallo also explained that her organization was particularly fighting against practices related to descent-based slavery where a person is given a slave status on the pretext that one of his or her ancestors was enslaved.
According to her, these people may be denied access to essential resources such as water, land, or consumer goods. This can lead to forced migration and further weaken the affected groups.
Despite the abolition of slavery and its condemnation, the phenomenon persists in some parts of the country, noted Ms. Diallo, who also thanked the partners for their commitment to children's rights, particularly Wikipedia Mali, which has agreed to make its platform available.
This training provides an opportunity for participants to acquire a Wikipedia address and to contribute to improving the articles, particularly on the fight against child slavery.
She invited journalists and other communicators to take an interest in the design of scientific articles on Wikipedia.
At the end of the training, an article was written by the participants on child slavery which will be improved and put online by the Wikipedia team.
The Donkosira Association was born out of a meeting of people motivated by the collection and dissemination of local knowledge in West Africa, on the occasion of an action-research project on the history of the village of Bouillagui in the Kayes Region of Mali.
This is to make the link between historical local struggles and current struggles against discrimination and violence linked to historical and modern slavery in Mali and elsewhere.
-0- PANA GT/JSG/BBA/RA 27April2023
