WUNRN
Direct Link to Report:
MID-TERM REVIEW OF THE AFRICAN
COMMON POSITION ON CHILDREN
"AN AFRICA FIT FOR
CHILDREN" 2007
The consultations for this Report
involved more than 1000 children from multiple countries. These children were
girls and boys, ages 12 to 18, and were representatives of the Children's
Parliaments, the Association of Working Children and Youths AEJT, and other
Associations and Children's Organizations.
The participants in these
consultations included school children, children in difficult circumstances as
child laborers, students from Koranic schools, farm laborers, all drawn from
big towns as well as from rural areas.
_________________________________________________________________________
Example of Report Gender Inclusion:
2.6 Right to Education
2.6.2 - Enrollment & Treatment
of Girls in School
In a unanimous way the children
recognize that there are positive measures in place that favour the schooling
of girls in different countries....
For the children, there are still
some unfavourable practices that work against girls' education:
*The girls
are always victims of discrimination.
*Disparaties exist between regions in a country.
*Girls are
not always treated in the same manner as their boy colleagues
because of cultural beliefs at family levels. It is often said that the place
of
girls is in the kitchen.
*Some girls
are victims of unwanted pregnancies, early marriages, and sexual
abuse.
_________________________________________________________________________
Website Link - Plan International:
Plan warns African leaders that children in rural areas see their parents 'giving up' in the face of poverty and rising prices.
African leaders’ efforts to improve the lives of children across the continent are failing those in rural areas, according to children themselves.
Children across rural Africa who took part in a Plan study, said things were getting worse, not better, as families face increased levels of poverty and parents struggle to cope with rising prices and high levels of unemployment.
Plan asked 1,000 children across 30 African countries how their lives have changed as a result of the African Union’s 2001 initiative to make Africa Fit for Children.
The results were presented to African Union ministers and development experts at the second Pan-African Forum on Children in Cairo chaired by Suzanne Mubarek, First Lady of Egypt.
Children talked of poorer health and education services as well as lower incomes. They also spoke of their parents’ apathy and of them “giving up” as a result of the increasing hardship.
Rural children were particularly concerned that there were too few schools capable of educating disabled young people and that state schools were vastly inferior to private schools attended by children from well-off families. All the children surveyed identified the continent’s economic difficulties as a major cause of increased child labour and trafficking.
Legislation intended to strengthen children’s rights has been passed in most countries but children said this has so far had little impact on their lives.
Addressing the forum’s opening sessions, Tom Miller, Plan’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “This is a wake up call for Africa - children tell us they are being left behind. Despite the efforts of African Union governments a large number of children have not seen any benefit in their lives. Worse still many feel things are going backwards. The message is clear; we can’t expect to improve the lives of children if we don’t involve the children themselves.”
Read the report "Africa fit for children" (pdf, 1.26mb)
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