INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD.
June 16th marks the international day of the African child. Many people are not aware of this because, to be honest, what good does an African child bring? They are exceptional in the cobalt mines in Congo and the slave markets of Libya. The African child is only useful when being used. 41% of the children in the African continent are at work against their will. The African child has been and is still susceptible to all manner of indecency. The Government of Kenya has recently reported that 1.9 million children, between the ages of 5–17, are working children. Only 3.2% of these children have attained a secondary school education and 12.7% have no formal schooling at all. This is the state of the African child.
This day has been celebrated since 1991 and was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity. It honours the students who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976. It also raises awareness of the need for improvement of the education provided to African Children. In Soweto South Africa, on June 1976, about ten thousand black school children marched in a column more than half a mile long, protesting the poor quality of their education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language. Different year have different themes and years is “Access to a child-friendly justice system in Africa” Every year a forum is congregated by the OAU to discuss the different themes each year. Due to the current COVID19 crisis, the commemoration of the event at the continental level will be done through a Webinar, which aims to examine the elements of a child-friendly justice system, including the application of a child rights-based approach and use the four principles of children’s rights as a tool for realizing access to a child-friendly justice system in Africa. The Webinar also aims at creating a platform for dialogue among children, policymakers, organizations working on children’s rights, and the academics on the major challenges in ensuring equal access to child-friendly justice to all groups of children in Africa. It will further serve as an experience sharing forum where positive trends, mechanisms, and structures the Member States will be discussed.
This is what the stakeholders will do but at the grassroots level, what should we do to ensure that the African child is catered for? What should be done to ensure that the African child just like any other child is not susceptible to issues like police brutality? What measure should be put in place to ensure that the African child gets access to quality education, food and his rights are upheld? What are the rights of the child and how are governments stakeholders, private and public sector responding to it. This year the day happens to come whilst in the middle of the pandemic, a situation that has painted black and white the type of society we live in. Most children cannot access the learning education that very many governments have gravitated to, cases of child abuse and sexual abuse are in the increase during this time. As much as there have been a number of measures been put in place to cater for the children during the pandemic period, the big ask is how effective were these measures and which were being targeted. Social stratification has been clearly seen during this period as the poor children continue to sail in their poverty while the rich access education and other basic but paramount amenities.
As we celebrate this day, there's a need to focus on the justice system and how time and again it has failed the African Child. Cases of defilement don't get reported and the reported ones are never issued justice. Basing on this year's theme“Access to a child-friendly justice system in Africa” where do we start working to ensure that the African child gets justice?