Southern Africa: Over 60m children face abuse

  1. Posted on Thursday 11 October 2012 - 11:03
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    Justin Kampamba, AfricaNews reporter in Pretoria, South Africa
    Over 60 million children in Southern Africa face poverty, violence and abuse while the HIV and AIDS pandemic remains a major crisis. The United Nations Study on Violence Against Children has revealed overwhelming levels of violence against children. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children is widespread and corporal punishment is still common practice in all settings.
    Situation of children in Southern Africa
    Government ministries responsible for addressing child protection often lack the staff and resources to do so.

    Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 1.8 of the 2.1 million children under 15 living with HIV globally. In 2007 alone, 370,000 children were newly infected, 330,000 of these were in Sub-Saharan Africa. Only 18% of children infected by HIV and AIDS are receiving treatment. There is little information and support provided to children to protect themselves from contracting HIV.

    Over the last decade there has been a strong focus on access to education, often overshadowing quality and relevance. Despite this, about 4.6 million children in Southern Africa are not attending school, mainly in rural areas. Children along with their care givers lack opportunities to participate in the governance of their schools.

    It is the government's obligation to enforce legislation protecting the rights of all children and allowing children to participate in decisions affecting their lives. All countries in Southern Africa have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and all countries, except Zambia and Swaziland, have ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

    However, these instruments are not adequately enforced. Even where national legislation is in line with these instruments conservative attitudes towards children and a lack of capacity to implement national law undermines the realisation of children's rights.

    As part of a broad democracy, a strong civil society, including the media is crucial to hold governments to account. Unfortunately many governments in Southern Africa do not acknowledge this as a legitimate role and seek to either co-opt or neutralise civil society and the media.

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