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**News in brief** **Quiz** To view this CRINMAIL online, visit: http://www.crin.org/email/crinmail_detail.asp?crinmailID=3276 Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at info@crin.org. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html If you do not receive this email in html format, you will not be able to see some hyperlinks in the text. At the end of each item we have therefore provided a full URL linking to a web page where further information is available.  Setting out the agenda for the 15th session, Chairperson Ms. Seynabou Ndiaye DiakhatĂŠ from Senegal said the Committee would review the State party report of Uganda. The Committee was also due to examine reports from Rwanda and Niger, but both reviews were postponed. âI want to remind States that this is not a test or exam, but a space to exchange views,â said Ms. DiakhatĂŠ. Other items on the agenda this session include a thematic session on violence against children, a presentation of recommendations made by civil society organisations, the election of a new bureau, and a meeting with members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to discuss working methods. The Committee will also adopt its new plan of action for 2010- 2014. Commenting on the Committee's productive year, Ms Ndiaye DiakhatĂŠ added: âMy ambition was to take this Committee to the highest level â I wanted to make it an effective Committee with your support.â However, she said, the Committee has not been able to do everything it had planned due to budgetary constraints. She expressed regret that as a result of this the Committee will only be able to hold one session this year, rather than the usual two, despite the Committee's heavy workload. The Committee hopes that something will be done so that it can at least hold an extraordinary session before the end of the year. Save the Children assured Committee members that they would be happy to work with them and other civil society organisations to ensure another session takes place this year. Child rights and the African Union Co-chairing the session, Adv. Bience Gwawanas, Commissioner for Social Affairs at the African Union, spoke of upcoming opportunities for raising the profile of child rights within the African Union. This year, which has been declared the Year of Peace and Security by the African Union, is an opportunity to see how we can make a difference for children in conflict situations, she said. Referring to expectations of the African Union Summit on maternal, infant and child health and development, to be held in July, she said âwe have had enough of declarations, the July summit must be about actionâ. Next month a continental conference on maternal and child health will be also be organised in Addis Ababa to review the status of the Maputo Plan of Action on Sexual and reproductive health and discuss strategies for improving women and childrenâs health, she announced. Members of civil society organisations then gave brief introductions to their work. One participant also expressed hope that the Committee's upcoming elections would be fruitful and that members would be selected on the basis of competence rather than politics. An update on the Committee's review of Uganda's report will follow. Further information Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22200&flag=news --------------------------------------------------------------------------- African Committee's work gathers steam with civil society support Read summaries from Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 [ADDIS ABABA, 13 March 2010] - The 3rd forum on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week. The forum, which is now held prior to every session of the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, supports the Committee's work and provides a strong platform for child rights information and advocacy in the region. The three-day meeting attracted more than one hundred participants from civil society organisations, as well as several members of the African Committee, from 31 African countries. Many of the participants â from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Somalia - said this was the first time they had the opportunity to network with child rights advocates across the continent. Participants discussed how to engage with the Committee and other key regional human rights mechanisms and planned child rights advocacy opportunities in the region for the year on a range of issues including: budgeting for child rights (the theme of this year's Day of the African Child), maternal, infant and child health and development (the theme of the African Union Summit in July), and the role of childrenâs rights in maintaining peace in Africa (2010 has been declared the Year of Peace and Security by the African Union). Talking to CRIN about the forum's impact, Chikezie Anyanwu, Save the Children's Africa Advocacy Adviser, said âthe forum has given us the opportunity to organise ourselves and to approach the Committee with one voice.â âWe have been able to get the Committee members to recognise us and work with us, basically because they need us as much as we need them â we share information and resources.â âCivil society organisations also played a strong role in pushing for the first Concluding Observations and contributing to the Committee's new plan of action. We are now also involved in the nomination process for Committee members. As a result of all this, child rights are also becoming more recognised within the African Union more generally.â Forum opening: âWe cannot use poverty as an excuse for inaction" Opening the forum, David Mugawe, Co-Director of the African Child Policy Forum, spoke of the progress made on economic growth and recognition of rights, noting a changing culture in the way that children are perceived in the region â that they are at last being recognised as full human beings with rights. However, much remains to be done to address the problems that remain, he said: âWe cannot use poverty as an excuse for inaction. The fulfilment of rights cannot be seen to be related to economics.â Benyam Mezmur, from the Community Law Centre, explained the background of the African Charter, analysing its provisions in comparison to those of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Read the analysis here. The African system has some impressive innovations, he said, stressing that the African Committee is currently the only mechanism in the world which has a specific complaints mechanism for children. However, in spite of the Charter's emphasis on the regional context of children's rights, he expressed frustration that the African Charter is still not widely known and that many States have reported to the CRC, but not to the African Committee. The Forum's organising committee is made up of the African Child Policy Forum, AfricaWide Movement for Children, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision. The Forum concluded with the adoption of a set of recommendations to the African Committee. The recommendations concern the Committee's general functions, communications procedure, advocacy around the Day of the African Child, the Year of Peace and Security in Africa and the 16th Session of the African Union Heads of State and Government Meeting: Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa. Read the recommendations in English and French Read the civil society commitment to action drafted at the forum Follow up Read a progress report on follow-up actions by civil society organisations. The report is based on a questionnaire sent to participants of two previous fora on the African Charter. The results are based on 22 responses received from 11 countries and are therefore just a taster of developments. It is hoped more organisations will submit information to future questionnaires. A full outcome document will be published shortly.
For more information on the forum, contact: csoforumacrwc@gmail.com Further information Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22194 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The African Committee: Factfile 2010 The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child monitors State compliance with the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Three members of the Committee - Agnes Kabore, Adrianirainy Rasamoely and Cyprien Adebayo Yanclo - gave an update on their work at the 3rd Forum on the Rights and Welfare of the Child held in Ethiopia from 11-13 March 2010. To read more about the Committee, go here. What is the Committee currently working on? The Committee continues its efforts to encourage ratification by all 53 Member States. Recent ratifications by Sao Tome and Principe and the Democratic Republic of Congo bring the total to 47. Committee Experts have undertaken a number of country visits, including to Namibia, Uganda and Sudan. An issue on the agenda this year is the election of new Committee members as the mandate of six of the current members will end in July 2010. The African Union Legal Affairs Department is now accepting nominations for new members. For more information on the elections, go here. Which States have submitted their initial report on the African Charter? To how many States has the Committee issued concluding observations? Have any shadow reports been submitted? How many organisations have applied for observer status? How many communications have been examined? What are the latest developments in terms of cooperation between the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee? What is the theme of the next Day of the African Child? How is the theme of the Day of the African Child decided? Further information Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22200 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special session on violence against children The African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child held a special session on violence against children during its 15th session.
[ADDIS ABABA, 15 March 2009] - Session 15 of the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child opened on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
African System: Creative but under-used
Recommendations
Other in-depth discussions were held on how the African Charter has been used as a tool for law reform across the continent, how children's participation could be mainstreamed in the Forum and the future governance structure of the Forum. Read the daily summaries for more information.
The Committee has reviewed a number of State party reports on the African Charter. It has issued Concluding Observations to two States and is due to finalise other recommendations during the current session. The Committee has also revised criteria for granting observer status to civil society organisations and a draft action plan for 2010-2014, both of which will be discussed at the 15th session.
Eleven States: Nigeria, Egypt, Mali, Togo, Niger, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Mauritius and Tanzania. The report of Niger has been postponed three times. The report of Uganda is under review at the current session.
Two: Nigeria and Egypt.
Shadow reports have been submitted from organisations in Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda.
Four organisations have requested observer status: Save the Children Sweden, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Banjul, the Centre for Human Rights in Botswana and the African Child Policy Forum. None of these organisations have so far been granted observer status because the selection criteria were still under review.
Two communications have been received but have yet to be examined. The reason given for this was that some of the documents have yet to be translated and made available in both English and French. The communications have been submitted by the Centre for Human Rights in Pretoria, South Africa and the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Banjul and the Open Society Initiative, Kenya.
A working group of three people has been established to coordinate with the CRC.
Budgeting for the rights and welfare of child
The theme is decided at the Committee's March session based on proposals. Each Member State decides activities in its country for that Day. In response to a comment that the process should be more participatory, Mme Cisse, the Committee's secretary, said the forum can also propose topics.
A statement was delivered on behalf of Marta Santos Pais, the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children (SRSG).
Calling for urgent action to end violence against children across the world, Ms Santos Pais noted in the important role played by African countries in the regional consultations which helped shape the UN Study on Violence against Children and its recommendations.
Highlighting her meeting with the Chairperson of the Committee and the African Union's Minister of Social Affairs in November, the SRSG said that cooperation with regional mechanisms and organisations was a key part of her strategy and welcomed the fact that addressing violence against children was high on the region's agenda.
Below is a summary of her recommendations:
- To develop a strategic agenda of collaboration with the African Committee to help consolidate an African fit for Children where violence has no place.
- To include the protection of children from all forms of violence as a systematic and core section of the Committee's review of States Parties' reports on the implementation of the African Charter, and also as a visible focus of the Committee's Concluding Observations.
- To undertake in collaboration with the SRSG an advocacy campaign to call for an explicit legal ban on all violence against children, including corporal punishment.
- To promote the development of an African report on national follow up to the recommendations of the UN Study on Violence against Children in close collaboration with key partners, including UNICEF and the African Child Policy Forum. Such a Pan African report can become a critical advocacy tool for promoting progress in the region, and also a powerful source of information on good practices to support the scaling up of positive initiatives, within and beyond the region.
- To place violence against children high in the policy agenda of the African Union and its Member States; African leaders have been vocal in their commitment to the protection of childrenâs rights, including through their strong call for action at the Pan-African Forum on Children.
Read the full speech here.
Violence against Children in Africa: The challenges and priorities for action
Dr. Assefa Bequele from the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) presented a report on the challenges and priorities for addressing violence against children in Africa, outlining the incidence of violence in the region, its causes and national legal and policy frameworks established to combat the problem.
Violence remains a pervasive but invisible problem in the region which is almost entirely absent from the political agenda, he said. ACPF studies of children in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia suggest that almost all children under the age of 15 experience some form of violence at home, at school, in institutions, on the streets or at the workplace.
These studies indicate that violence against children in the home setting is most in need of attention. Some estimates indicate that as many as 38 million children in sub-Saharan Africa report to have witnessed violence in their own home.
Explaining national legal provisions protecting children from violence, Dr. Bequele said that several countries have enacted comprehensive laws addressing one or more harmful practices (such as corporal punishment, FGM, early marriage/forced marriage) including Kenya, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Lesotho and the Gambia. These laws, he said, mandate preventative measures, as well as protection, support and assistance for the victim and survivor, in addition to criminalising the act of violence.
However, he said, despite these important but scattered national initiatives in the legal and policy area, children in Africa are, for the most part, neither covered by national protective policies and mechanisms nor reaping the protective benefits of laws on protection from violence, abuse, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Although protecting children from violence is primarily a national responsibility, he said, the African Committee has a moral and political power to take a leadership role in what is still a young movement, and to influence the behaviour and policies of government. He made the following recommendations to the Committee:
- To make violence against children a particular area of concern in national reporting to the Committee.
- To establish a programme of cooperation with the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children to accelerate action especially legislative and policy reforms in Africa.
- To embark on a major programme of advocacy and action, including a continent-wide campaign to promote non-violent and positive values in dealing with children, giving a central role to the family and positive parenting and the preparation of an Africa report on violence against children.
- To promote national policy and legal reforms. Laws are fundamental for action. A good beginning would be to use the Charter and the CRC for legislative reforms, more specifically to encourage countries to domesticate them and harmonise their national laws with international legal frameworks.
- To put child wellbeing in general and violence against children in particular on the political agenda by engaging Africaâs top political leadership.
Read the full report here
Further information
- Violence Study: Overarching Recommendations
- CRIN information page on the Human Rights Council
- About the UN Study on Violence Against Children
- More about follow up to the UN Study recommendations in Africa
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22197
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From the Frontline: Interview with Ms. Seynabou Ndiaye DiakhatĂŠÂ
Ms. Seynabou Ndiaye DiakhatĂŠ, 49, from Senegal, is the Chairperson of the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. She has been a member since July 2005. Her term ends this summer.
Ms. DiakhatĂŠ is a member of the Court of Justice of the West African Economic
and Monetary Union. She has also been the Senior Investigation Magistrate at the Court of First Instance in Dakar, Senegal and the Public Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance in Thiès and Deputy Public Prosecutor in charge of children's cases at the Court of First Instance in Dakar.
My commitment to children's rights comes from my work as a magistrate reviewing children's cases.
In my country we privilege educational and rehabilitation measures over detention. I can think of countless cases where children have been able to turn around their lives with some support. Sometimes when I am walking around the market in Dakar, a girl or boy who I met in court will come up to me and say "Mme DiakhatĂŠ, I remember you" and they will tell me about what they are doing with their lives now.
Even in my role as a Prosecutor I would still go to the courts even though according to the penal code this is the job of the deputy Prosecutor, because - in my head and in my actions - I am first and foremost a child rights advocate.
Many of the children I saw as a magistrate were beaten at home. Children are also hit in schools here. I think that corporal punishment should absolutely be banned. The problem is, in my country, the word for education and the word for stick - âyarâ - are the same! Many people think that using the stick is the same as teaching!
The thing I am most proud of is that when people see me in my country, they know me as an advocate of children's rights.
For me, the best thing about the Committee is the reporting process. It provides an opportunity for the Committee and States to have a dialogue and talk through children's rights issues together.
The worst is a lack of money to run all the activities we want. The fact that we are not an autonomous body, but an organ of the African Union is a particular constraint.
Civil society organisations have always been a partner of the Committee. In many ways, their voice is higher than ours â they can go everywhere, into society, into homes, they know what children's lives are really like and they support us with this knowledge.
If I could give one piece of advice to NGOs it would be to be patient and to work hard. The wait is very long, but we can win I think.
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22192
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Employment: African Child Policy Forum
African Child Policy Forum: Director of Programmes
ACPF is recruiting a Director of Programmes who would be responsible for overall programmatic direction, advocacy strategy and managerial oversight of its programmes. As part of the senior management team, he/she would play a key role in the leadership and direction of ACPF. Other key functions will include resource mobilisation and representational roles.
Application deadline: 15 April 2010
Email: jobs@africanchildforum.org
For more information, visit: http://www.africanchildforum.org/site/index.php?option=com_jobline&task=view&Itemid=63&id=3
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**News in brief**
South Africa: Street Child World Cup kicks off in Durban (16 March 2010)
Street children from eight different countries are in Durban South Africa for a mix of football and advocacy.
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22212&flag=news
Israeli raids target children (16 March 2010)
Three thousand heavily armed Israeli security service forces locked down large parts of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, as battalions of police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian protesters in the occupied eastern part of the city. Since January, at least 33 children from the area have been arrested, detained and interrogated by Israeli forces as home demolitions and settler takeovers continue apace.
http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=22198
Sterilisation of girls with disabilities in Australia (March 2010)
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) Inc calls on the Australian Government to act under its external affairs power to legislate to prohibit non-therapeutic sterilisation of minors unless there is a serious threat to health or life.
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22209&flag=report
CRIN: Call for news on child rights in Africa
CRIN is always interested in receiving updates on child rights issues in Africa, especially from national NGOs.
We are particularly interested in stories on neglected areas of child rights, such as children in conflict with the law, discrimination, freedom of religion, etc, information about legislative reform and successful advocacy initiatives.
Submitting information to CRIN means your work reaches a wider audience of up to 6,000 readers in 160 countries.
Any organisation can submit information by going to: http://www.crin.org/resources/submit_resource.asp
552 organisations based in Africa are members in CRIN. View our members here: http://www.crin.org/organisations/index.asp
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**Quiz**
Is your knowledge on child rights in Africa up to scratch?
Take this week's quiz here: http://www.crin.org/quiz/index.asp?quizID=1133
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