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.

DRAFT PROGRAMME

Specific Objectives

a)      Increase awareness of regional and international instruments promoting children’s rights.

b)   Review Southern African countries’ progress towards meeting their obligations in realising children and young people’s rights as outlined in the ACRWC & UNCRC.

c)    Mobilise child rights organisations within the region to formulate strategies and mechanisms to partner with governments to ensure continued implementation of UNCRC and ACRWC and fulfillment of children’s rights in the region.

d)   Raise awareness for governments in the region to draft and submit State Party reports to the African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) on the status of children and youth at national level.

Conference Outcomes

1.    A sub regional children’s network is established to promote children’s rights at both national and regional level.

2.    A regional policy dialogue framework around advocacy for children’s rights is established.

Summary of Daily Programme Outcomes

DAY 1

-          Participant’s increased understanding of instruments and processes promoting accountability for the realisation of children’s rights.

DAY 2

-          Capacity building sessions for strengthening civil society and government’s capacity to collaborate on advocacy issues around children’s rights.

DAY 3

-          Establishment of a regional child rights reference group to undertake advocacy around children’s rights.

 

Day 1:  Monday 14^th November

08:00 – 09:00 Registration and Coffee

09:00 – 09:05 Opening Remarks Tim Bainbridge, Director Save the Children Southern Africa

09:05 – 09:15 Conference Objectives Boichoko Ditlhake, Director SADC-Council of NGOs (SADC-CNGO)

09:15 – 09:20 Children to present their expectations from the conference, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and Media Network on Child Rights and Development (MNCRD)

09:20 – 09:45 Official Opening and Welcome,  South African Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) TBC

Objective: Overview of instruments and processes promoting children’s rights.

09:45-10:15	Key note address Promoting Accountability for the realisation of children’s in Africa,   Madame Agnes Kabore-Ouattara (Chair of the ACERWC)
10:15 -10:40	Tea /Coffee Break
10:40–11:30	Children’s Rights Instruments -          UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), UNICEF representative. -          African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), TBC
11:30 -12.30	Children’s Rights in Southern Africa – the realities, Professor Hansungule -          A regional overview of policy and legislation promoting child rights -          Successes and gaps (country examples) -          Opportunities for realising children’s socio-economic rights
12:30–13:30	Lunch
13:30- 14:15	Children present their views. Children and the Media / Child Journalists MMA Children’s parliamentarians from Mozambique SCiMozambique
Accountability for the realisation of children’s rights: monitoring and evaluation tools and processes
14:15 -15:15	Reporting processes (15 minute presentation, 15 min Q&A per instrument). 1.       Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – TBC 2.       Civil society organisations – supplementary and alternative reporting to ACRWC & UNCRC,
15:15-15:45	Tea /Coffee Break
15:45–16:45	Regional tools (15 minute presentation, 15 min Q&A per instrument) 1.       SADC instruments (OVCY Framework and Minimum Standards Package), 2.       NEPAD - APRM opportunities for putting children’s rights on the development agenda, TBC
16:45 -17:00	Wrap up and close for the day.

Day 2: Tuesday 15^th November

Strengthening civil society and government’s capacity to collaborate on advocacy issues around children’s rights

09:00-09:15	Recap of day 1.
09:15–10:15	Stakeholders collaborating to improve State Party and Civil Society reporting on the status of children -          State Party reporting: Shared experiences from South Africa/Tanzania (TBC) on the constraints faced by governments  Government  Representative -          Southern Africa Civil Society’s role in drafting and submitting alternative or shadow reports  SADC-CNGO,
10:15–10:30	Tea /Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:30	Children’s rights and Customary / traditional law. -          Customary law study  Patricia Martin & Buyi Mbambo
11:30-12:15	Training sessions. 1st session Breakaway training session’s:  each session is 1 hour long and participants can attend 2 sessions. (a)     Raising Children’s Voices -          Child participation in the reporting process, -          Children and the media, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) (b)    Building coalitions and networks for child rights advocacy -              Zambian civil society experiences at national level (child rights   forum) and regional experiences (corporal punishment network) -             Opportunities to engage with SADC: strength of a child rights network (c)     Resource mobilisation for children’s rights advocacy -        Budget tracking and monitoring process and tools Idasa -        Utilising budget monitoring findings to inform advocacy Idasa (d)    Reporting Mechanisms: how to use instruments to document children’s realities -        African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children -        African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) -        Universal Periodic Review -        UN convention on the Rights of the Child
12:15- 13:15	Lunch

13:15: 14:00	Training session 2nd session Breakaway training session’s:  each session is 1 hour long and participants can attend 2 sessions. (a)     Raising Children’s Voices (b)    Building coalitions and networks for child rights advocacy (c)     Resource mobilisation for children’s rights advocacy (d)    Reporting Mechanisms: how to use instruments to document children’s realities
14:00–15:30	Working groups Rotating coffee table discussions (rotation every 30 minutes with 2 facilitators staying at each session). 1.       How to develop a structure for regional civil society collaboration. 2.       Identifying child rights advocacy priorities for the region. 3.       How civil society can work together with government to improve implementation of regional and international child rights instruments & protocols
15:30 – 16:00	Tea /Coffee Break
16:00-16:50	Feedback and plenary from Working groups.
16:50-17:00	Close

Day 3: Thursday 16^th November  (half day)

Establishing a regional child rights reference group

09:00-09:30	Recap of day 1&2.
09:30–10:30	Discuss development of country networks and nominate interim child rights reference group representative per country.
10:30 10:50	Tea /Coffee Break
10:50-11:50	-          Presentation and discussion of draft Terms of Reference for the interim child rights reference group -          Plenary discussion around draft governance structure of the interim child rights reference group
11:50-12:00	-          Confirmation of interim committee  in plenary
12:00 -12.30	-          Resolutions SADC-CNGO & Noma
12:30 -13:00	-          Brief report by rapporteur Closing
13:00-14:00	Lunch