THE United Nations (UN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (FMWASD), office of the National Security Adviser, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have begUn moves to rehabilitate persons, especially women and girls rescued from Boko Haram captivity.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, disclosed this in Abuja yesterday when she led her team on a visit to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, accompanied by representatives from the office of the National Security Adviser, NAPTIP and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his contribution, Dainuis Puras, also a UN Special Rapporteur, said they intend to ensure that all the victims, including women and children have access to physical and mental health as well how to manage sexual violence.

Speaking, Permanent Secretary FMWASD, Mrs. Binta Bello, said the ministry was actively involved in a Presidential Initiative for the North/East (PINE) and had embarked on various visits to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the insurgency-ridden states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa to identify with the victims, assess needs and donate relief materials.

Bello added that the Global Humanitarian Coordination team in collaboration with the ministry and other agencies has set up working groups like child protection sub-working groups and the sexual and gender-based violence sub-working groups respectively.

According to her, the goal of the child protection sub-working group was to ensure humanitarian actors’ commitment to standards and best practices for child protection in emergency situations, as it bothers on the situation of children in the North/East states where over 1.3 million persons are displaced; 57 percent of which are children.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography, are independent experts which report to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland.