To celebrate the children of Africa and calls for serious introspection and commitment towards addressing the numerous challenges they face in Africa, the DAC 2020 theme reflect on ‘Access to a Child-Friendly Justice System in Africa’ as adopted by the African Union Executive Council, during its 34th Ordinary Session, held in February 2019.
As every year on 16 June, the African Union and its Member States observe the Day of the African Child (DAC) as a commemoration of the 16th June 1976 student uprising in Soweto, South Africa, where students who marched in protest against apartheid-inspired education, were brutally murdered.
The DAC 2020 theme of the year set 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 year-long activities aim at ensuring equal access to child-friendly justice to all groups of children in Africa.
In this regard, the African Union, jointly with UNICEF, have launched the No Name Campaign: For Every Child a Legal Identity, For Every Child Access to Justice, identifies birth registration as a key element for the access to child friendly justice.
The campaign aims at rallying more actions and speedy implementation of commitments by the African Union member states, towards the universal registration of children at birth and the urgency to reposition civil registration and vital statistics in Africa, to address the indignity of invisibility. The launch of the campaign is equally timely as concerns rise on the threat of birth registration rates falling behind amid COVID-19 pandemic.
In examining the elements of a child-friendly justice system, including the application of a child rights-based approach for realizing access to a child-friendly justice system in Africa, the “No Name Campaign” recognizes that children whose births are not registered and who lack proof of their age are more vulnerable to marginalization, discrimination, abuse, and associated protection risks such as child marriage, child labour, forced recruitment to armed groups and forces, and trafficking.
A child-friendly justice system refers to all procedures of judicial or administrative nature, whether formal or informal, where children are brought into contact with, or are involved in civil, criminal or administrative law matters. The campaign not only emphasizes the key role that birth registration plays to prove a child’s entitlement to access justice, but underscores that the ideals in Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, will not be achieved without securing, protecting, and promoting the rights of children as the drivers of Africa’s renaissance.
A well-functioning CRVS system is also a major source of continuous and reliable vital statistics and population data at local level. It is important for effective implementation of universal and inclusive development, and for monitoring of progress towards national and international development targets such as the SDGs and Agenda 2063.
