occasion of Day of the African Child, University of Johannesburg, Soweto
24 June 2006
Children of South Africa and Africa
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for taking the time and effort to be with us in South Africa on
this very important day of the African child. This gathering comes at a very
important moment in our country�s history as this year marks the 30th
Anniversary of the Soweto and related uprisings.
We have with us today children from all Provinces, rural areas, informal
settlements, Children�s Homes, and farm schools. We are also heartened by the
participation of children representing Egypt, Rwanda, Mozambique and Angola at
this event and I must say I am very pleased to welcome all of you today. Your
participation here does truly make this the Day of the African Child.
The African Union as you are all aware took the decision to commemorate the
Day of the African Child in honour of South Africa�s children who died during
the 1976 students� uprisings. The actual date for the Day of the African Child
is June 16. However, this year, given significance of the 30th Anniversary
celebrations in our country, we took the decision to commemorate the Day of the
African Child on 24 June to ensure that we accord this day the full
significance it deserves and to celebrate it in a manner befitting the
aspirations of the African Union.
The Day of the African Child is one of the most important days on the
children�s rights calendar of the African Union. On this day, Member States of
the AU are all urged to commemorate the Day of the African Child and report to
the AU on their national commemoration events.
June is also Youth month in South Africa, and as we meet today to
deliberate, to discuss and to find solutions to the plight of the African
child, let take a moment to reflect on the reality that in South Africa,
children have played a huge role in our struggle for national liberation and
democracy. And as freedom loving people we it owe to all those who made
enormous sacrifices, to ensure that we do not forget that they stared evil in
the eye, they challenged what the United Nations called a crime against
humanity and they fought state sanctioned state sponsored violence. And they
were ultimately victorious.
In South Africa, the National Civil Society Children�s Rights Forum chaired
by the National Children�s Rights Committee organised and commemorated the
African Union Day of the African Child for the first time in 2005.
This year, Government is commemorating the Day of the African Child in
partnership with the �National Civil Society Children�s Rights Forum.� We are
also recognising the important contribution made by children to the liberation
of South Africa and the Continent.
As a member State of the AU, and signatory to the AU Charter for the Rights
and Welfare of the Child, South Africa has an obligation to support children�s
rights initiatives domestically, regionally and continentally. And this year�s
African Union theme for the Day of the African Child �Child Protection�
resonates very loudly in our country. In South Africa, our theme for the decade
is �the age of hope�. In combining the two, we decided that the theme for this
commemorative event being held in South Africa has to be �Child Protection and
Development in the Age of Hope�.
Child protection and development requires an understanding of the need to
protect the fundamental human rights of children. It requires that those of us
who are in a position to make a difference must re-dedicate ourselves to the
continual improvement of the socio-economic condition of children in our
respective countries. This is their right and this is our responsibility.
Now is the time for us to re-frame the debate about �children at risk�,
child poverty and vulnerability of children, by highlighting the critical
social dimensions of poverty the impact it has on the ability of children to be
fully included as equals in all aspects of the public and private spheres of
our society. Now is the time for us to put in place policies and programs that
protect and advance the human rights of children and develop their talents and
capacities.
The impoverishment of our children and their socio-economic exclusion is a
legacy of apartheid and colonialism and is linked to a number of intersecting
factors such as race, gender, disability, class and geographical location. We
must start thinking anew about social policy and how we can promote the full
inclusion of children into our vision of creating better lives for all our
citizens especially orphaned and vulnerable children.
To do less would be to shirk our collective responsibility to those who
require our interventions to protect their rights. Our continent cannot prosper
if children still live in poverty. It cannot be considered democratic if
children are working, begging and living on streets. And we cannot be
considered to be protecting rights if racism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia,
sexism, sexual exploitation and violence still negatively impact on the life
chances of our children. Ours can never be a continent at peace if we continue
to recruit children and youth into conflicts that are generated and sustained
by adults who rightly should know better.
To ensure that we meet our obligations to the children of our respective
countries in general and specifically to girl children and other children
facing multiple disadvantages, our governments have to be proactive in
developing and implementing inclusive pro-poor policies to address extreme
poverty and hunger. It is only just and fitting that in order to value the
children of our continent we must ensure that they can live in a world where
they:
* Have equal access to quality education.
* Have access to free basic medical and dental services.
* Have a roof over their head, have safe clean drinking water and proper
sanitation.
* Have adequate nutritionally balanced food and do not go to bed hungry.
* Live long healthy lives largely free of preventable diseases.
* Are free of violence and exploitation.
* Live in conditions of peace and harmony.
* Are free from want and poverty.
* Can develop their talents and capacities free of discrimination based on
race, gender, disability etc.
* Are respected, nurtured and have their fundamental human rights upheld and
guaranteed.
Our approach to children starts with respecting and protecting their
fundamental human rights. But our experience tells us we need to go beyond
that. Thus when President Mbeki speaks of a South Africa �United in Our
Diversity� he also gives cogent expression to a recognition that our government
recognises, values and cherishes the diversity of our children.
Our public policies need to be more closely aligned with the lived
experiences of children and families both in terms of the programmes we
delivery and in terms of how we arrive at those policies and programmes.
Research, as well as our own pro-poor policy and programme interventions tells
us that universal programmes and policies like the child support grant that
serve children and families generally provide a much stronger foundation for
improving the well being of children than do other residual or targeted
programmes.
I am therefore suggesting that we need to be clear about our approach it
must be a proactive human development approach to the well being of children
that calls for more than the removal of barriers and risks. There is a great
deal of research about the ways in which children in our society are denied
participation in and access to benefits of our socio-economic gains. Children
are entitled to the rights of full citizenship; they are not the property of
adults.
The children of our continent have the right to expect support, care and
love from their parents, but they also have the right to expect other sources
of support and care from their government and society. It is often said that a
government must be judged by the extent to which it cares for the well being of
its most marginalised and vulnerable in society. And in our case that really
and truly refers to all our children but particularly those of our children who
live under conditions of poverty.
Our approach then must be about investments and actions designed to bring
about conditions of inclusion. The yardsticks by which we must measure our
progress with respect to the rights of children must be the degree to which
we:
* Confer valued respect and recognition on children, including in
recognising their differences, their abilities and their disabilities.
* Nurture the talents and capacities of our children, including in providing
learning and developmental opportunities for children, community care for
children, and recreational opportunities for children, and in school feeding
programs.
* Promote active involvement and engagement by children and families in
decision making affecting their lives be it in schools, input around the
curriculum, participation in policy decision making etc.
* Promote social cohesion through investing in safe, shared public spaces �
including public parks, libraries, mixed income neighbourhoods and housing and
fully integrated schools and classrooms.
* Make available the material resources to allow children and their families to
participate fully in community life free from want and poverty.
* Eradicate all forms of physical, psychological and emotional violence against
our children in both the public spheres and the private domains of our
countries.
We recognise that there are many inter-related factors that combine in
complicated ways to produce children in good health who are confident, content,
competent, resilient and socially responsible and ready to take their rightful
place as valued and contributing members of our society. We also recognise that
child poverty does not exist in isolation. Child poverty is a reflection of
family poverty and poverty and underdevelopment in society at large.
Poverty and underdevelopment, depletes the talents and capacities of our
children; rob our children of their rights and their futures. Children must be
protected, nurtured and assisted to become beneficiaries of and contributors to
the creation of a truly prosperous continent thus our consistent and determined
focus on addressing poverty and underdevelopment in society.
Investing in the education of our children is the key to providing the
intellectual and social stimulation that form the foundation for the future
success of our children. Improving access to education also improves the life
quality for our children in the here-and-now.
The rights of children and the improving the well being of children in our
continent must remain uppermost on the agendas of all spheres of government and
organisations in civil society. The children of our country deserve nothing
less from the institutions and from the responsible individuals in those
institutions. This commitment is perfectly consistent with the AU Charter on
the Rights and Welfare of the Child which emphasises that children have age
appropriate responsibilities that build the character of future adult citizens
of nations and secure the foundation for national prosperity.
In conclusion, let me say that we must move forward on a covenant for
children that calls for and addresses the multiple exclusions faced by children
in our society. We already have the makings of such a covenant it is codified
in the AU Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children and in the
International Convention on the Rights of the Child. The moral and legal
expression of the covenant is there. What we need to pursue with greater vigour
is the process of social inclusion that will bring all children within the
broader ambit of moral and political consideration worthy of securing the
legal, personal and moral considerations that are their due.
We must express our solidarity with our children. In so doing, we will come
to understand that we have a collective responsibility to future generations to
strengthen our measures to protect and look after our children and prepare them
to be responsible citizens, willing to contribute to the building of a
prosperous African continent of which we can all be immensely proud.
I wish you well in your deliberations today and may your discussions be
productive and fruitful.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
24 June 2006
