children’s rights

Malawi’s former justice of the Child Justice Court, Esmie Tembenu, has stressed the need for the country to protect children from all forms of abuse.

This comes at a time when some non-governmental organisations expressed worry over the delay to adopt the child protection policy.

Tembenu says there is need to protect children from continued abuse and responding to the abuse by taking a child away from the abusive environment.

Zambia’s Committee on Legal Affairs, Governance, Human Rights, Gender Matters and Child Affairs (CLAGHRGMCA) has asked non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to ensure members of Parliament (MPs) are engaged in all planning activities when drafting child marriage laws in that country.

Kabwe Central MP, James Kapyanga, points out that, “MPs can also get involved in the fight on ending child marriages, especially in the drafting and discussions of the draft laws instead of waiting for these draft pieces of legislation to come to Parliament”.

A South African minor is said to be suffering from malaria after allegedly being abducted and trafficked to Malawi.

A delegation led by the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, together with Interpol will be heading to Malawi to bring home the relatives.

Dlamini says the case highlights the need for society as a whole to be vigilant about the trafficking of children.

The Department of Social Development is advocating a change to the law so that social workers employed by government can process child adoption applications‚ as opposed to it being done only by adoption agencies.
 
The review of the child adoption process comes after two cases in which the adoptive parents applied to the courts for the rescission of adoption orders‚ citing violent behaviour and psychological problems.
 

About 31.4 percent of secondary school children surveyed in Gauteng have encountered people who tried to get them to talk online about sex against their will.

According to a study by the Youth Research Unit (YRU) of the Bureau of Market Research (BMR) at the University of South Africa, “Almost a quarter (22.8 percent) were asked online to perform sexual acts.”

It says that "according to Prof Deon Tustin, online sexual grooming of children should be viewed as a distinct phenomenon impacting negatively on the day-to-day functioning of young people, families and communities."

The United Nations says that around 120 million girls around the world, close to one in 10, have been raped or sexually assaulted by the time they turn 20.

In its new report, Hidden in Plain Sight, which draws on data from 190 countries, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) describes the report as the largest-ever study of violence against children.

The report revealed that one fifth of all murder victims are children and teens, with homicide the leading cause of death among male youths in Latin American countries including Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Brazil.

In an effort to combat cross-border human and drug trafficking, a group of Gauteng-based activists will soon be operating in Mbombela, Mpumalanga.

National non-governmental organisation (NGO), Asilweni Cleaning Streets, seeks to help victims of human trafficking through a series of awareness campaigns around the Lowveld.

The organisation’s the NGO’s founding chairperson, Cherlyn Tshabangu, points out that, “Mbombela is close to the border and prone to more trafficking of children from South Africa to Mozambique and vice versa.”

Eight months into the academic year, pupils at a rural school in Limpopo still do not have textbooks.
 
The school governing body (SGB) at Ramalawane Secondary School in Ga-Mphahlele village, in the Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality, say their repeated pleas to have outstanding textbooks delivered have fallen on deaf ears.
 
SGB member, Masese Madigoe, says that the school required 105 textbooks for maths, physical science, geography, Sepedi and life orientation, adding that pupils in grades 9, 10 and 11 are affected by the non-delivery of textbooks.