CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE __________________________________________________________________________ This law is aimed at prescribing the conditions for the movement of children within and outside Benin, and at punishing child traffickers. 304. The CRM also noted that new institutions designed to protect and promote the rights of the child have been set up. These include the National Commission on the Rights of Children (CNDE) and the National Unit for Monitoring and Coordinating Activities for the Protection of the Child. They include a number of action plans and programmes adopted by state organs concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of the child. They also note that Benin has prepared a draft national policy and strategy for protecting children. 305. At the institutional level, several governmental and nongovernmental national and international bodies are in charge of children18. At governmental level, many ministries deal with issues relating to the rights of children. First, there is the Ministry of Justice, Legislation and Human Rights. It coordinates the monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the different governmental and local structures and between the various relevant ministries. The mission of the Ministry of the Family, Social Protection and Solidarity is to ensure, through the Directorate of the Family, Children and Adolescence, that the laws on the family and protection of the child – namely the Individual and Family Code and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with other instruments that protect the rights of children ratified by Benin – are implemented effectively. 306. The BPM of the Ministry of Interior, Security and Decentralisation is responsible for protecting children and adolescents by preventing social maladjustment, and by investigating crimes and offences committed by minors younger than 18. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has, as one of its missions, to initiate, prepare and propose policies, strategies and plans of action relating to the implementation of national education policies and to see to their application. It also coordinates various actions to promote education for girls. 307. The mission of the CNDE (Decree 99-559 of 22 November 1999) is to coordinate all actions for implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child with other ministries and public organisations. In 2001, six departmental committees on the rights of the child were set up. The National Centre for Safeguarding Children and Adolescents (CNSEA) is charged with the reeducation and social reintegration of minors in difficulty. Besides its primary function – which is receiving minors in conflict with the law and in ‘moral’ danger – the CNSEA was becoming a reception centre for children who are victims of trafficking. Established by presidential Decree 67-316/PR/MGM of 9 September 1967, the CNSEA has been closed and reopened several times between 1967 and 1995, when it was last reopened. The centre has been closed for 10 years because of the implementation of the decentralisation process. Apart from the CNSEA located in Cotonou, two regional centres have been in existence since 2000 in Parakou and Aplahoué. The gradual construction of additional regional centres has been planned for each department. With regard 18 Benin’s report CRC/BEN/2, Paragraph 46. 120