Imphal, December 29: A one-day advocacy workshop on child rights was organised under the aegis of the State Core Group on Coalition on Children's Rights to Protection, Imphal at Manipur Press Club here today.

Member of Manipur Human Rights Commission Retd Lt Col RK Rajendra Singh and president of Mahila Kalyan Samiti M Purnimashi Devi attended the inaugural function of the workshop as chief guest and president respectively.

Giving the key note address of the function, member of the State Core Group K Pradipkumar said that the impact of the prevailing armed conflict situation should be taken into account while discussing the rights of children in Manipur.

The State as well as other International human rights organisations have not been able to pay attention to this aspect of the problem, he observed.

The State does not regard the prevailing armed conflict situation in Manipur as armed conflict while maintaining that it is only a law and order problem.

So there is the need to document the impact of prevailing armed conflict on the rights of the children in Manipur, Pradipkumar said.

He went on to say that in the name of suppressing the armed insurgency movement in the State, security troops are being deployed in the State even to the extent of occupying the school buildings for education of the children by the security forces.

Another problem that denied the rights of the children in Manipur is the problem of HIV/AIDS, Pradipkumar said, while calling for concerted effort to fight against HIV/AIDS to ensure the rights of the children.

The first technical session of the workshop was conducted with RK Rajendra as the moderator.

Joykumar Wahengbam spoke on the topic of 'Protection of child rights in conflict situation'.

In the afternoon session conducted with Y Rupachandra as the moderator, Senior Lecturer of LMS Law College Dr N Pramod Singh spoke on the topic of 'Enforcement of International humanitarian law in conflict areas with reference to Manipur situation' and Dr Lala Singh on 'Role of International Committee of Red Cross in conflict areas'.

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