WUNRN
ACPF – African Child Policy Forum
African Report on
Violence Against Children – Girls in Africa
Direct Link to Full 134-Page Report:
https://app.box.com/s/iclv9c70sigmceyl30ym
Armed conflict has also aggravated children’s,
especially girls’ vulnerability to sexual violence. In many African conflicts,
extreme sexual violence and rape has been deployed as a weapon of war. gross violations of children’s rights have been reported from
many war zones. during the conflict in Sierra Leone, more than 70 per cent
of the reported sexual violence were girls under 18, and more than 20 per cent
of those were girls under 11. Another estimate from the conflict period shows
that as many as 215,000 to 257,000 Sierra Leonean women and girls may have been
subjected to sexual violence.
This report, The
African Report on Violence against Children, the first comprehensive analysis
of violence against children in Africa, comes at an opportune moment in the
history of child rights in Africa and the world. It comes at a time when
the child rights community is taking stock of the progress made in advancing
child rights 25 years since the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child and the un Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The report makes
an in-depth exposition of the magnitude as well as the causes and consequences
of violence against children and analyses the various vulnerability factors
that underlie or aggravate violence such as, gender, social practices,
homelessness and disability.
The report looks
into the multifarious community and family cosmos within which the
African child grows. It analyses how a complex web of community values and
socio-cultural factors bear upon the child’s upbringing and protection, and how
some of these factors may occasionally expose the child to violence.
The report seeks
to find answers for why the problem of violence still persists despite the
proliferation of child protection programmes and services by critically
examining both the achievements and the gaps cutting across the
legislative and programmatic realms.
Building upon
existing efforts and persisting gaps the report lays down the priorities for
action at various levels and the interface that is required amongst the various
actors for better protection of children. The report calls for a shift towards
a systems approach to child protection that emphasizes prevention and
collaborative responses at multiple levels, including at the family and
community levels.
The report echoes
what others have reiterated in the past that violence, in whatever form, is
unacceptable and cannot be justified on cultural or religious grounds
whatsoever.
Themes