CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2ND SOUTHERN AFRICA REGIONAL CHILD RIGHTS CONFERENCE

Musa Chibwana, CRNSA Chair addressing the conference

 PREAMBLE

1.1.        We, representatives of child rights focused organizations from across Southern Africa, which brought together a number of stakeholders including parliamentarians, government officials and various civil society organisations, meeting under the auspices of the CRNSA to reflect on building a strong child rights movement in Southern Africa

1.2.        Inspired by the desire to see children’s rights, protected, promoted and fulfilled in a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation

1.3.        Recognising that every child matters, all children matter irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, age, race, or gender

1.4.        Cognisant of the need for a stronger movement of the child rights sector in order to speak with a unified voice for and with children.

We therefore deliberated on a number of child rights issues of concern, which should be made a priority by state parties in Southern African and the African Union. Now therefore we call upon SADC to:

1.      ADOPT a specific children’s protocol

2.      MAKE state parties implement the SADC basic minimum package of services

3.      ENSURE meaningful participation of children at levels of decision making, in particular ensuring that each country has a state-funded children’s parliament

4.      DOMESTICATE regional and international instruments that state parties have ratified

5.      OF NOTE, Swaziland to ratify the African Charter on the Welfare of the Child

6.      ALLOCATE and increase budgets for children at all levels while guaranteeing meticulous budget monitoring

7.      THAT,  all communications from the African Union be translated to Portuguese for the benefit of countries speaking this language

8.      GUARANTEE timeous reporting to treaty bodies, especially the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, where no other southern Africa region has reported except Tanzania

9.      PRIORITIZE  child abuse prevention and early intervention programs

10.   EXPEDITIOUSLY pass comprehensive child related laws and policies

11.   BE role models in championing children rights  

12.   ADDRESS the contradictions arising from the existence of dual legal systems (customary law and civil law) especially where harmful  practices

13.   ADOPT all outstanding Optional Protocols inter alia the Optional Protocol on communication

14.   ENSURE that there are centralised databases on specific issues are created and maintained and that these are readily accessible to multilevel stakeholders.

15.   ADDRESS violence, particularly sexual violence, placing emphasis on rehabilitation and education.

Southern Africa Child Rights Situation Analysis update

Save the Children has released information from the Southern Africa Child Rights Situation Analysis report. Some of the facts are as follows: There are approximately 130 million people in SCS’s (Save the Children Sweden) Southern Africa region. Of which, 60.6 million (46.6%) are children, less than 18 years old, and 19 million (14.6%) are less than five years old. The two largest countries in the region are South Africa (48.2 million) and Mozambique (19.8 million). The two smallest countries are Botswana (1.8 million) and Swaziland (1.1 million). Annual average population growth rates vary from 1.4% (Lesotho) to 2.8% (Angola). Children (< 18 years) account for an average of 46.6% of the total population in the 10 countries surveyed. This proportion ranges from 38% (South Africa) to 54% (Mozambique). In four countries, i.e. Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, the proportion of children is over 50%.

It is estimated that 300 million children globally are subjected to violence, exploitation and abuse. In Southern Africa this includes the worst forms of child labor, armed conflict and to harmful traditional practices, such as early marriage, virginity testing and female genital mutilation/cutting.

The Child Rights Conference taking place on 1 and 2 November 2012 in Midrand in South Africa. Some of these issues will be of interest.

Second Southern Africa Conference on Children's Rights

On 1 - 2 November 2012, the Second Southern Africa Conference on child rights will be held at the Pan African Parliament in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The theme for this year's conference is: Building child rights movements in Southern Africa.

The Conferenceis an initiative that is building up on the momentum that was created by a similar event in 2011. The latter meeting brought about child rights stakeholders from Southern African countries. The participant’s ranged from government officials in line ministries, members of the child rights sector, legislators, academia and the children themselves. This conference was the first of its kind in ensuring that there is coordination at the regional level. One of the key outputs of the meeting was a resolution to set up a Southern African child rights network. Following the meeting held in May 2012, the forum was officially called the Child Rights Network for Southern Africa (CRNSA). The initial CRNSA meeting went further to coming up with a work-plan and it is in the context of this plan that this upcoming conference is located. This upcoming conference is therefore a product of the initial conference held in 2011 while it is contributing significantly to the realization of the work plan set by CRNSA.

Justification

Child rights advocacy can be said to have been weak in the past years at both country and regional level. This assertion can be attested by the countries’ inconsistencies in international and regional reporting to treaty bodies like the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee and the African Charter on the Rights and the Welfare of the Child Committee of Experts. Furthermore, weak advocacy in the child rights sector can be noted by lack of domestication of the ratified treaties by most Southern African countries consequently causing children’s issues not to be adequately provided for in the law, resource allocation and policy making.

Such weak advocacy for children’s rights at country level subsequently affects regional efforts. Regional advocacy is as strong as national advocacy initiatives. It is in this light that CRNSA has been set. The major purpose of CRNSA is to spearhead all child rights advocacy at regional to international levels. For this to happen, there is need to have defined, strong and established child rights networks. This upcoming conference seeks to ensure that country networks are well established to effectively coordinate advocacy initiatives in the countries. This will then have a ripple effect of having a strong child rights network at regional level through CRNSA.

Build up activities

In line with the CRNSA workplan, the build up to the conference will focus on identifying and conducting capacity assessments for the country child rights networks in SADC countries. These consultations will see the CRNSA chairperson and other team members meeting child rights networks and organizations in some identified countries. A comprehensive report will be compiled on the state of child rights networks in Southern Africa. This report will be presented at the commencement of the upcoming conference to inform deliberations. It should be noted that not all countries will be visited. Some of the countries identified for the consultations are:

1. Mozambique
2. Zimbabwe
3. Zambia
4. South Africa
5. Swaziland
6. Malawi  

The remaining countries in the region will be visited for consultations in 2013.

Objectives of the conference

The conference seeks to achieve the following:

1. To publicly launch the Child Rights Network for Southern Africa (CRNSA).
2. To come up with mechanisms of strengthening the child rights movement in Southern Africa.
3. To develop a child rights advocacy strategy for southern Africa

To provide a platform for children to express their views on issues affecting them. 

For more information and registration please contact michaelm@saf.savethechildren.se or immogenv@saf.savethechildren.se or call +27 12 342 0222

Conference on the status of children's rights in SADC

From 14 to 16 November 2011 Save the Children, the Pan African Parliament and SADC CNGO hosted a conference on the Status of Children’s Rights in Southern Africa.

The conference was attended by government representatives from 11 SADC countries, the Pan African Parliament Members of Parliament, SADC Parliamentary Forum Members of Parliament, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, civil society organizations from 12 Southern African countries, academics and consultants.

The conference aimed at increasing the participant’s understanding of instruments and processes in promoting accountability for the realization of children’s rights. There were dialogue sessions to strengthen civil society and government’s capacity to collaborate on advocacy issues around children’s issues.

On the last day a committee was established to take forward the process of establishing a Regional Child Rights Reference Group to undertake advocacy around children’s rights in the region.The terms of reference for the Reference Group were discussed but it was agreed that further discussions at country level have to take place.

The conference also agreed that more issues should be included to the Reference Group's ToRs. The issues include identifying child rights advocacy priorities and resource mobilization, building networks and coalitions for child rights advocacy, establishing collaborative relationships amongst CSOs and governments, the implementation of regional and international instruments and protocols, reporting mechanisms and child participation.

At the end of the conference resolutions were made which will be finalised once country network consultations have taken place. They will be communicated wildly and used as a benchmark. The report on the conference will be available shortly.