2005 in Africa - Children's Rights

Children's Rights

• Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General, presented on 16 February 2005 at the UN Security Council an extended action plan for systematic monitoring and signaling of cruelty against children (recruitment of child soldiers, abduction, mutilation, murder, rape or other sexual ill-treatment of children, attacks on schools or hospitals) in conflict areas. Although the report notes improvements in several countries (Angola, Ethiopia, Erythrea, Liberia, Sierra Leone), it includes a list of countries where the situation is alarming, in particular Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.
• Birth registration: the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in association with the non-governmental organization Plan International, launched on 28 February 2005 (in the margins of the Panafrican Festival of cinema and television of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)) a campaign to promote birth registration in West and Central Africa. The organizations specify: "In sub-Saharan Africa, seven new-born babies out of ten aren't recorded at the registry office (...) Without certificate of birth, the children have more problems accessing basic social services (health, education, etc). In addition, they are without legal protection and vulnerable to any form of exploitation".
• UNICEF’s "Prize for the Promotion of Children’s Rights" was handed out during the 19th edition of the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou on 4 March 2005 to the Senegalese director Ben Diogaye Bèye for his film Un amour d'enfant ("A child's love"). The "Prize for Children’s Rights" was presented to Ntshavheni Wa Muruli (South Africa) for "The Wooden Camera".
• Republic of the Congo: The ministry for social affairs organized on 25 March a deliberation meeting on care for the street children, with participation of non-governmental organizations, UNICEF, UNESCO and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). More than one thousand children live in the streets of the capital Brazzaville.
• Morocco: According to a study of the Ministry of Labour and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, made public in April, approximately 600 000 Moroccan children work, that is 11% of Moroccan children.
• Benin: from 2 to 9 May, the NGO Plan Bénin organized in Cotonou a workshop on comic strips for children and teenagers of Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Togo. These children can use comic strips to express themselves about their rights and about their vision of development.
• A regional consultation on violence against children in Central and Western Africa took place in Bamako (Mali) on 24 and 25 May 2005. It was organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Malian government, and brought together delegates of governments and NGO's of 24 countries and international organizations. They issued several recommendations towards African governments on the protection of children against violence (adoption and application of laws prohibiting corporal punishment and all forms of violence within the family, increased sensitizing of parents to assume responsibility for the nonviolent education of their children, punishment of sexual abuse of children by teachers, creation of council centers and training of counselors for child victims of violence, increase in the number of juvenile courts) and on the participation of children in all the stages of the development process of projects, programs and policies in their favour, as well as on the support of initiatives, developed by children to fight violence. They request the increase of budgets for child protection programmes and the generalization of child benefit systems to fight poverty.