TITLE:
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, an Instrument Based on African Socio-Cultural Realities: Truth or Utopia?
AUTHORS:
Ildephonse Sindayigaya
KEYWORDS:
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Children’s Rights, African Realities, African Culture, The African Child
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.2,
February
28,
2024
ABSTRACT: African states rushed to adopt the International
Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, and at the same time set up an
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1990, after
justifying the need for an instrument that took account of the social and cultural
realities of African children’s rights. Using documentary techniques, the
results of our research show that the African Charter is based on the general
principles of children’s rights, namely the right to non-discrimination, the
right to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and
development, the right to protection against all forms of exploitation, and the
right to participation or the right to be heard. In application of these
general principles, the African States wanted a response that kept in mind the
historical context of the social realities of children’s rights, especially
children under the apartheid regime, but also the situation of children whose
mothers are imprisoned, the situation of child begging, the exploitation of
children, and so on. In spite of this initiative, African states are reluctant
to implement their demands to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child, in addition to the delay in ratifying or acceding to
the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which has not been
the case with ratification of the International Convention on the Rights of the
Child and the production of reports to its protection body.