Indicators of Children's rights in Africa

A critical assessment of the welfare of childhood in Africa clearly reflects a number of irregularities which need government, institutions and communities to become critical lynchpins in childhood welfare. Childhood in Africa is characterized with limited access to basics such as health, education in terms of enrolment levels literacy levels, high infant mortality rates, nutritional levels among others. The childhood wellbeing depends on a number of variables such as public expenditure on health and education, distribution of income, stability in household incomes, public policies on the family and children especially in difficult circumstances.  African children face a short, difficult and brutal existence as it lacks the basics required through childhood. Children’s rights can be measured using a number of indicators including level of education in terms of enrolment ratios and literacy levels, child participation in national issues and matters that concern them, infant mortality rate, maternal death rates, nutritional ratios, child labour, street children, child participation in armed conflicts.

Childhood reflects a Child wellbeing which means a lot of things. Primarily, it is about children being secure, healthy and happy. It is about having opportunities to grow, to learn and to know. It is about positive personal and social relationships and about being and feeling safe, secure and respected. It is fundamentally about freedom from fear – fear of the present and the future – and about full security and total peace, at home and in the larger community that encompasses school and country. It is about being given a voice and being heard. In short: it is all about the full and harmonious development of each child’s personality, skills and talents. All of these have a better chance of being achieved in societies and states that are ruled by the principle of participatory and democratic governance and that uphold both in law and practice the priority principle of the “best interests of the child”. The latter means respecting, protecting and realising the rights of children, and nurturing a social ecology that provides opportunities for all children– boys and girls, disabled or disadvantaged – to be able to achieve their full potential

Families are first in the range of actors providing protection to children and ensuring their wellbeing. As the primary sources of child wellbeing, the views, perceptions and practices of families determine the way they treat and care for their children. This is why both the UNCRC and the ACRWC acknowledge the primary responsibility of parents for the upbringing and development of the child.7 two things, however, need to be noted. Firstly, much as they are the fountain of love and care, families can also, for one reason or another, be a source of child abuse, neglect and exploitation. The primary and indispensable role of the family in the life of children notwithstanding, children must be protected from practices that make them vulnerable to abuse, violence and maltreatment within the family environment.

Secondly, however enlightened and sensitive families may be toward the best interests of their children, their effectiveness will depend on their ability and capacity to provide for their children’s physical, intellectual and material needs. Then of importance after the family for child wellbeing are communities and traditions. Perhaps the most enduring feature of Africa’s wellbeing regime is the decisive role played by these actors: communities and traditions exert a lifelong influence on human welfare in Africa. Africa owes the survival of its humanity from the onslaught of various challenges – poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and others – to the tremendous wisdom embodied in its community traditions and cultures and its solid societal cohesion.

These actors have withstood the test of time in their credibility as sentinels of human wellbeing and security, long before formal states emerged. Most African cultures regard human wellbeing as a consequence and extension of child wellbeing, and therefore accord a unique and privileged position to the child. The child is seen as celestial, a complex social and material being that needs to be handled with great care, considered part of the cosmos even before it is born (Evans 1993, 22 cited in Luzze 2002). Once born, children are collectively regarded as the ‘young trees ’that perpetuate the ‘forest’, which signifies the family and society (Luzze 2002).As the foundation upon which communities are built, African culture takes every child as the responsibility of the community. Hence parenthood becomes about social responsibility, both physical and mental, and even where biological and social reproduction is separated many people can fulfil the role of parents without having genetic ties to children (Tronick et al. 1987 cited in Feeny and Boyden 2003).

Children are precious communal blessings that are not left solely to the care and support of their families. The African saying “it takes a whole village to raise a child” epitomises the attitude and practice whereby child-rearing, given the highest regard, is seen as a collective, communal responsibility. The state is the other indispensable actor in child wellbeing, and the principal duty bearer of child rights. Thus the state’s obligations to respect children’s rights ,to provide them with full protection, and to fulfil their needs lies at the heart of the rights-based approach to child wellbeing stipulated in the major child rights instruments.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (article 27) obliges states to recognise the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development; or, in the words of the African Charter [article 5(2)], to ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival, protection and development of the child. These two instruments go further, re-drawing the relationship between the state and families as well as between the state and traditions, by entrusting an enhanced role to the state in ensuring the rights and wellbeing of children.

These legal instruments challenged the customarily ‘unquestionable’ control parents exerted over their children, and outlawed some traditional practices within families that were doing harm to children. The African state has since become a critical lynchpin in child wellbeing, thanks to the increasing awareness of the need for rights-based development, the emergence of responsible and accountable leaders, and the growth of a more progressive political culture.

Though a lot remains to be done in terms of improved governance, several countries have embarked on a process of dramatic political transformation. Authoritarian structures have given way to more pluralistic ones in a number of countries, such as Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone and South Africa (German Development Institute 2007). Countries like Gabon, Mauritius and Lesotho have continued to enjoy peace and security with high scores in the ‘safety and security’ dimension of the Mo Ibrahim African Governance Index (Mo Ibrahim Foundation2007).

A momentous shift is taking place in the African mindset, among citizens and leaders alike. There is an emerging and growing consensus that Africa’s problems can be solved only by Africans themselves: African leaders are taking steps to own up to the irresponsibility’s, as can be seen from the various initiatives taken in the economic and political sphere, both within the framework of the African Union and the region.  Some of these efforts seem to have paid off already: civil wars in

Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone recently ended after several decades, and cease-fire negotiations   are under way, though painfully slowly, in the DRC, Chad and Uganda.

CHILDHOOD IN AFRICA

The concept of childhood in Africa is characterized high infant mortality rates .Nearly 10 million children under five died worldwide in 2006, according to a new report. That is a daily rate of 26,000 deaths according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) latest data available of (2006) on  the under-five mortality rate for every country in the world. The rate is expressed as the number of children dying before their fifth birthday per 1,000 live births. Of the 10 million, 4 million die within the first month of life, half of these within the first 24 hours. Many of these deaths are related to the lack of adequate medical and nursing intervention at the time of birth. The report notes that half a million women a year die in childbirth. The mortality rate is a result of various factors, such as nutrition, availability of safe water, child and maternal services available, the availability of medication and immunization. The report provides a detailed picture of the conditions facing newborn children around the world.

The four countries with the highest rates of infant mortality were Sierra Leone, with 270 deaths per 1,000 live births; Angola with 260; Niger with 253; and Liberia with 235.  The report notes, “For every newborn baby who dies, another 20 suffer birth injury, complications arising from preterm birth or other neonatal conditions. At present in the developing world, one quarter of pregnant women does not receive even a single visit from skilled health personnel only 59% of births take place with the assistance of a skilled attendant; and just half take place in a health facility.”

Whilst there has been some reduction in child mortality rates, progress in some regions of the world has been negligible. One of the millennium development goals set by the UN in 2000 was to reduce the under-five child mortality rate by two thirds by the year 2015.Amongst regions making “insufficient progress” towards this goal are sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa, whilst the region of West and Central Africa has made no progress. The report notes, “Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most troubling geographic area.... 1 in every 6 children dies before age five.” Almost half of all deaths of children under five occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet only 22 percent of children were born there.

The 27 countries that have registered scant progress since 1990 or have an under-five mortality rate that is stagnant or higher that it was in 1990... The region as a whole only managed to reduce child mortality at an average annual rate of 1 percent from 1990-2006, and double-digit reductions will be needed during each of the remaining years (to 2015) if it is to meet MDG4 (the millennium goal of reducing child mortality by two thirds).”British Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted the likely failure to reach the millennium goals. Speaking at the world economic summit being held in Davos, Switzerland, he said: “We have promised that infant mortality will be cut by three quarters by 2015. On present trends we will not make that happen until at least 2050.”The UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon added: “We need fresh ideas and fresh approaches. It is unacceptable that one child dies of hunger every five seconds.”A separate report issued by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a non-governmental relief agency, on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, shows around 45,000 people a month are dying, of which half are young children.

The IRC report noted: “The majority of deaths have been due to infectious diseases, malnutrition and neo-natal and pregnancy-related conditions. Increased rates of disease are likely related to the social and economic disturbances caused by conflict, including disruption of health services, poor food security, and deterioration of infrastructure and population displacement. Children...are particularly susceptible to these easily preventable and treatable conditions.”Ann Veneman, UNICEF executive director, in a foreword to the UNICEF report, noted: “Widespread adoption of basic health interventions including early and exclusive breastfeeding, immunization, vitamin A supplementation and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria, are essential to scaling up progress, in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.”The report notes: “Pneumonia kills more children than any other disease—more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. It is a major cause of deaths in every region.” The report goes on to note how other factors such as malnutrition and environmental conditions heighten the susceptibility of children to pneumonia.

It further notes that there are more than 2 million children under the age of 15 living with the HIV virus and that in 2006 more than half a million were born HIV-infected. Antiretroviral drug therapy can dramatically reduce the chance of HIV-infected mothers passing the virus to their children. But the report notes, “Despite the obvious benefits of drug therapy and it relatively low cost, only 11% of women in low and middle income countries who were HIV-positive were receiving services to prevent transmissions of the virus to their newborns in 2005... The vast majority of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa.”The interventions necessary to reduce this appalling total of infant deaths are comparatively simple and cheap. The fact that the death rate is so high is the result of the failure of Western governments to provide the means to address this problem.

A critical examination of childhood in Africa reflects that it is often characterized by conflicts which are a threat to the existence and the full and harmonious development of each child’s personality, skills and talents. The conflicts that engulf Africa have seen the development of child soldiers which is against article 22 of the African charter which stipulates that state parties should ensure that no child shall take a direct part in hostilities and refrain in particular, from recruiting any child. However in contrast to the provision African child deprived of his childhood as he is in cooperated into conflicts as  child soldiers

Child soldiers in Africa
In most cases where armed conflicts are ongoing, the extent of child participation in hostilities, whether as part of government armed forces, government-sponsored armed groups or militia, or non-governmental armed groups or militia is of major concern. It also includes basic demographic data and information on the estimated size of governmental armed forces and non-governmental armed groups.
An attempt has been made to include relevant and accurate information on the situation in each African country.

More than 120,000 children under 18 years of age are currently participating in armed conflicts across Africa. Some of these children are no more than 7 or 8 years of age. The countries most affected by this problem are: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda. Furthermore, Ethiopian government forces engaged in an armed conflict against Eritrea, and the clans in Somalia, have both included an unknown, though probably not substantial, number of under-18s in their ranks. In internal armed conflicts in the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal, on the other hand, there has been little or no recorded use of under-18s by government or armed opposition forces, and there are almost certainly no under-15s participating in hostilities in these three situations.

In addition to the obvious risks to children of participation in armed conflict — which apply equally to adults —children are often at an added disadvantage as combatants. Their immaturity may lead them to take excessive risks according Herbert Wise, a senior researcher at the Woodraw Wilson Center; children make good fighters because they’re young and want to show off. They think it’s all a game, so they’re fearless." Moreover, and as a result of being widely perceived to be dispensable commodities, “they tend to receive little or no training before being thrust into the front line.”
Children may begin participating in conflict from as young as the age of seven. Some start as porters (carrying food or ammunition) or messengers, others as spies. A rebel commander I interviewed in the Congo in 2000 said, "They’re very good at getting information. You can send them across enemy lines and nobody suspects them [because] they’re so young." And as soon as they are strong enough to handle an assault rifle or a semi-automatic weapon (normally at 10 years of age), children are used as soldiers. One former child soldier from Uganda stated that: "We spent sleepless nights watching for the enemy. My first role was to carry a torch for grown-up rebels. Later I was shown how to use hand grenades. Barely within a month or so, I was carrying an AK-47 rifle or even a G3."
When they are not actively engaged in combat, they can often be seen manning checkpoints; adult soldiers can normally be seen standing a further 15 meters behind the barrier so that if bullets start flying, it is the children who are the first victims. And in any given conflict when

even a few children are involved as soldiers, all children, civilian or combatant, come under suspicion. Girls too are used as soldiers, though generally in much smaller numbers than boys. In Liberia, "about one per cent of the demobilized child soldiers in 1997 were girls or young women. But many more took part in one form or another in the war. Like many males, females joined one of the factions for their own protection. Un-willingly, they became the girlfriends or wives of rebel leaders or members: ‘wartime women’ is the term they themselves use. The risks to these girls of sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies are enormous.

Child soldiers, sometimes under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which they may be forced to take, have too frequently committed all atrocities. In Congo, for example, a journalist from the local television in Uganda claimed that most of the rebels are children not older than 14, who are under the effect of drugs and alcohol. He reported what one of them told him about torture they inflict on their victims.

Recruitment of Child Soldiers by governments

The overwhelming majority of African States set 18 as the minimum age for recruitment, whether voluntary or through conscription. Indeed South Africa is in the process of increasing its minimum age for voluntary recruitment to 18 (conscription has already been abolished) and Mauritania may also be raising its minimum age from 16 to 18. In Angola, however, a country severely affected by the phenomenon of child soldiers, the government recently reduced the age of conscription to 17 years. Given the lack of systematic birth registration, even younger children are inevitably recruited even if the will to prevent underage recruitment existed. Moreover, reducing the minimum age of conscription to 17 is currently lawful since international law sets 15 as the international minimum age.
Burundi and Rwanda have the lowest legal recruitment ages on the African continent, seemingly 15 or 16 years for volunteers, although Uganda has formerly claimed to accept children with the apparent age of 13 to be enrolled with parental consent. In Chad, parental consent appears to allow the minimum age of 18 to be effectively reduced. Concerns also exist as to legislation in Botswana, Kenya, and Zambia where children with the ‘apparent age of 18’ can lawfully be recruited. Libya appears to accept volunteers at 17 years, if not younger. In South Africa, in a state of emergency, children of 15 years of age or above can be used directly in armed conflict by virtue of the Constitution. Finally, legislation in Mozambique, a country whose past has seen widespread use of child soldiers, specifically allows the armed forces to change the minimum conscription age — 18 — in time of war

ACCESS TO SHELTER

The housing situation in Africa remains dire. More than 198 million children are said to be living in one or more forms of severe shelter deprivation in sub-Saharan Africa (Gordon et al. 2003), with about 32 million children living on the ‘street’.12 Further Complicating the situation of homelessness are widespread incidents of forced evictions indifferent parts of the continent. The violence, panic and confusion typical of forced evictions subject children to recurring nightmares, anxiety and distrust (Centre on Housing Right sand Evictions 2006). The impact of eviction on family stability and on children’s emotional

Wellbeing can be devastating; the experience has been described as comparable to war for children in terms of the developmental consequences (Bartlett 2002). Millions of people across the continent live in makeshift camps and tents because of war-driven internal displacements, or are forced to be constantly on the move in search of a safe place to stay.

All this points to the fact that African states have to take the problems of homelessness and displacement seriously. They need to appreciate the fact that a child deprived of housing will be deprived of many other basic rights, such as the rights to health, education, protection from economic exploitation and abuse, and the right to a legal identity and citizenship.

States therefore have to put legal and policy frameworks in place to protect people from forced evictions, and to realise progressively their right to adequate housing. They have to undertake large-scale housing projects that consider the levels of income of the poor, and that  provide  sufficient opportunities for  the poor to have adequate shelter on a long term

Education of Africa’s Childhood

There has been impressive progress towards achieving education for all in Africa, particularly in those countries that have abolished school fees. When Kenya removed school fees for primary education in 2003, some 1.3 million children enrolled for the first time (African Union 2007a). Countries like Algeria, Tunisia and Malawi have nearly achieved 100 per cent net enrolment ratios; Tanzania achieved a 91.4 per cent net enrolment ratio in 2005Against this impressive record is the poor performance of several other countries. In 2005, only about 66 per cent of primary school age children in sub-Saharan Africa went to school (UNICEF 2007c)In 2004, the net enrolment rate in Djibouti stood at 29 per cent for girls and 36 per cent for boys at the primary level; the corresponding ratios for Niger were 32 per cent for girls and 46 per cent for boys (World Bank 2006).

Much attention in Africa is given to progress, or lack of it, in respect to primary education  to the almost total neglect of secondary education According to UNICEF, only 27 percent and 23 per cent of children of secondary school age attend secondary school in east and central Africa and eastern and southern Africa, respectively (UNICEF 2007c)Only Mauritius, South Africa and Seychelles have gross secondary enrolment rates of more than 80 per cent (World Bank 2006)According to UNESCO, fewer than 20 per cent of the children enrolled complete secondary schooling (UNESCO 2007).There are several explanations for slow progress on this front. Limited budgetary commitment is one, but there are others, such as school fees, hidden costs of schooling, and lack of food and educational materials that hinder school attendance and contribute to high drop-out rates in many countries. Hidden costs, such as uniforms, lunch expenses and mandatory contributions to community development funds, as well as the lack of basic facilities such as adequate sanitation, have further contributed to the exclusion of children from poor backgrounds in general, and girls in particular.

The issue of quality has been clouded by a preoccupation with meeting numerical targets and the political desire to proclaim high levels of achievement in school enrolment. The irrelevance of the curriculum, high teacher pupil ratios, low teacher salaries and reluctance to teach in rural areas are draining the quality of schooling in Africa (Executive Summary of Teacher Development, cited in African Union 2007a)The median pupil-teacher ratio for sub-Saharan Africa was 43 in 2004. In Congo (Brazzaville) there was one teacher for 83 pupils, and in Chad there was one teacher for 69 pupils (World Bank 2006; World Bank 2004) The low quality of education, the failure of the education system to take account of the absorptive capacity of the economy and the theoretical nature of the skills taught together result in minimal employability of African graduates. Thus the African education system is “geared towards churning [out] job-seekers rather than job creators” (Egulu 2004)

Health in African Childhood

Health The health of Africa’s children

Over the next decade, it is estimated by the International Finance Corporation that $25-$30 billion of new investment will be needed in health care assets, including hospitals and clinics to meet the growing demands of the healthcare market in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is set to double by 2016, rising to $35 billion. In Guinea, 48 per cent of all people visiting hospitals and primary health facilities come from the richest fifth of the population, and those from the poorest fifth make up only four per cent of patients. When Uganda eliminated user fees at health facilities in 2001, public visits increased by 80per cent, with half of the increase from the poorest fifth of the population (UNDP 2006 cited in Harsch 2006)because of supply shortages and lack of income-support measures, millions of Africans remain excluded from essential services.HIV positive pregnant women not attending PMTCT programme…….96% exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months of age has increased remarkably in many sub-Saharan African countries over the last 10 years. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life has the potential to avert 13 per cent of all deaths under five in developing countries, making it the most effective preventive method of saving children’s lives (UNICEF 2007a). Fighting poliomyelitis. Despite outbreaks in Angola, Cape Verde and the DRC in 2000, most countries (31) have maintained polio-free status for more than three years Very encouraging results have been achieved in totally eradicating or reducing to insignificant levels the burden of diseases like leprosy, Guinea-worm disease and river blindness (WHO 2006) According to WHO, 41 countries reached 60 per cent or more of their children with measles immunization in 2005. Overall measles deaths have declined by more than 50 per cent on the continent since 1999 (WHO 2006).

Early marriages

 A problem commonly found in many parts of African childhood which can lead to grave lifelong health complications, is the phenomenon of early marriage. Some 42 percent of women between 15 and 24 were married before 18 in Africa (UNICEF 2005), and the figure is more than 60 per cent in some parts of east and west Africa (International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) and UNFPA 2006). At this rate, 100 million more girls – or 25,000 more girls every day – will become child brides in the next decade (USAID 2007). In Chad, Guinea, Mali and Niger, the median age at marriage is less than17 years. In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, 50 per cent of girls are married before the age of 15 (Lawn and Kerber (eds.) 2006).Studies show a strong association between child marriage and early childbirth, partly because girls are pressured to prove their fertility soon after marrying (Lawn and Kerber(eds.) 2006). The world’s highest adolescent pregnancy rates are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in every four girls has given birth by age 18 (Population Reference Bureau, 2006). In West Africa, as many as 55 per cent of women give birth before the age of 20 (Save the Children 2004). Young mothers experience higher rates of maternal mortality and higher risk of obstructed labour and pregnancy-induced hypertension, because their bodies are unprepared for childbirth. Their babies are also more likely to be born pre-term, or to die (Save the Children 2004).

Access to water and sanitation

Lack of, and inadequate access to, safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is a major contributory factor to the poor health of Africa’s children (UNICEF 2007c).In countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, four out of five children either use surface water or have to walk more than 15 minutes to find a protected water source (UNICEF 2004).Chart 1.6a Percentage of population using improved drinking water source, 2004Access to adequate sanitation is the other critical factor in child survival. With improved sanitation, overall child mortality can be reduced by about a third coverage has not been encouraging; rates of coverage in 37 African countries are (WaterAid 2005). Despite this, progress in the provision of improved sanitation less than 50 per cent. In Eritrea and Ethiopia, coverage figures were nine and 13 per cent respectively. No wonder, then, that these two countries have some of the highest child death rates from diarrhoea in the world) to the entire population of Tunisia (Emeagwali 2003). Twenty-nine per cent of Ghana’s physicians are working abroad, as are 34 per cent of Zimbabwean nurses (WHO2006). There are reportedly more Sierra Leonean doctors living in just the Chicago area of the US than there are in Sierra Leone (Shinn 2002). To address growing shortages of health workers, some countries are testing models whereby certain health care tasks are re-assigned from highly qualified health workers to less qualified staff and community workers, after orientation and under supervision (WHO 2006).

The provision of drinking water and sanitation facilities alone is insufficient to ensure children’s health. These must be accompanied by hygiene awareness and related measures to ensure that children are not exposed to pathogens. Basic measures in ensuring hygiene include the use of latrines, washing hands after defecation and before eating or preparing food, proper disposal of faeces, protecting water sources and cooking food thoroughly.11Universal access to even the most basic water, sanitation and hygiene facilities would reduce the financial burden on health systems in sub-Saharan Africa by about US$ 610million, which represents about seven per cent of the region’s overall health budget (UNDP

2006).

Child victims of violence in African Childhood

Violence against children is a widely pervasive and deeply disturbing problem The form violence takes ranges from physical violence – such as beatings – to psychological and sexual violence including verbal abuse and rape, to harmful traditional practices including early marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (ACPF 2006)

African attitudes towards children can be somewhat contradictory, as much as they are considered as precious beings, children are seldom treated with sensitivity, consideration or respect in their everyday life because they are not viewed as whole human beings with all the rights that adults have A survey in Ethiopia found that 72 per cent of children had been slapped when at school • Some 84 per cent of the girls surveyed in Ethiopia, 94.2 per cent in Uganda and 99 per cent in Kenya had experienced physical abuse some 67 per cent of schoolgirls surveyed in Botswana had been sexually harassed by their teachers

Much of the violence against children takes place in the home environment and is perpetrated by family members The family is the arena where traditions and customs find expression and are put to practice It is at the family level that violence and harmful traditional practices are legitimized and played out before being passed on to following generation scan lead to grave lifelong health complications, is the phenomenon of early marriage. Some 42 per cent of women between 15 and 24 were married before 18 in Africa (UNICEF 2005 Studies show a strong association between child marriage and early childbirth, partly because girls are pressured to prove their fertility soon after marrying (Lawn and Kerber (eds.) 2006). Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Often referred to as ‘female circumcision’ UNICEF estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and Sudan, three million girls and women are subjected to FGM every year (UNICEF 2005). FGM is abominable, not only because it is cruel, but because it has deleterious effects on the health of women and their infants. Women who have been subjected to the practice are significantly more likely to have complications during childbirth.

Indicators of children’s rights

Children’s rights are human rights of children with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to young including their right to association with biological parents, human identity as well as basic needs for food universal state paid education, health care and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child. Children’s rights are defined in numerous ways, including a wide spectrum of civil, cultural economic, social and political rights. Various indicators can reflect the upholding or the existence of this rights such as child participation, existence of institutions that represent children, adopting and fully embracing of international instruments of children’s rights such as the African Charter on Children’s right, UN Convention on the rights of the Child, access to the basic needs by the children, Enshrining the rights of the children in the Constitution.

The rights of children can be categorized into three categories

 1 Provision – Children have the right to an adequate standard of living, healthcare, education and services, and to play and recreation. These include balanced diet, a warm bed to sleep in, and access to schooling.

 2. Protection- they also have the right to protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and discrimination. this include the right to safe places for children’s to play constructive child rearing behaviour and the acknowledgment of the evolving capacities of children

3. Participation – Children have the right to participate in communities and have programms and services for themselves. This includes children’s involvement in libraries and community programmes, youth voice activities and involving children’s as decision makers

Access to information

Access to the media is a vital vehicle in creating awareness about children’s needs, and in facilitating opportunities for children to participate in society, yet 39 per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to television, radio, telephones or newspapers (Gordon et al. 2003).According to a children and youth poll conducted in eight countries in the eastern and southern Africa region, only 34 per cent of children reported home ownership of television though there was higher radio coverage (62 per cent) In some countries, such as Ethiopia, as many as 95 per cent of children know nothing about drugs and related prevention methods. A staggering 45 per cent of children in the region reported to know next to nothing about HIV/AIDS (ACPF and UNICEF 2007).Wider access to media like TV, Radio, newspapers and the internet, in a child-friendly and ethically sound format, is of paramount importance in allowing the meaningful participation of children in socio-economic life.

Child participation

The participation and involvement of children in schools, community action, media and governance is of paramount importance especially in matters that affect them directly. They involvement gives them the opportunity to express their needs so that they can be addressed adequately can set the young minds to have trust of the institutions of leadership.

A children and youth poll conducted by ACPF and UNICEF in eight African countries revealed that children in Tanzania enjoy above 90 per cent level of trust in their country’s institutions of leadership and governance children perceived their present life in Tanzania to be better than life ten years ago,

Government expenditure/ Budget

Government expenditure on institutions or matters that deal with wellbeing of children can be an indicator of the government willingness to uphold the rights of the children. According to David Mugawe  children’s rights and wellbeing are intrinsically linked with public budgets. The most prominent government institutions that deal with issues of children are Min of health, Education and Social services varying through governments. NGO’s are also play a crucial role in complimenting government efforts towards upholding the rights of children.

However most African countries seem to priorities other avenues such as state security at the expense of child wellbeing. The African Report on Child Wellbeing: Budgeting for reviewed the budget performance of 52 African governments between 2006-2008, focusing on spending on sectors that most directly impact on children. The report found a continent on contrast with the exception of the top three Tanzania, Mozambique and Niger along with Gabon, Senegal, Tunisia, Seychelles, Algeria, Cape Verde and South Africa make up the only category of committed governments allocating the maximum of their available resources to children. At the opposite end the low performers identified by the ARCW are Sudan, Angola, Burundi, Comoros, D.R.C, Eritrea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone. These countries scored low due to lower levels of investment in sectors benefiting children, the decline of these allocations over the years and relatively high military expenditure. Despite low economic status Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda and Tanzania scored high than relatively high income countries such as Angola Mauritania, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea who scored low 

Ratification of international and regional child rights treaties

The ratification of international and regional child rights can be used as a key indicator of Children’s rights. Some countries have scored well in ratifying these treaties however the performance of some African states is of major concern.

An analysis of ratification or accession of these treaties showed that 10 of the 51governments surveyed (excluding Morocco) had not ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child as of June 19, 2007.19 About half of African governments had not ratified the Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict; and20 of the 52 governments had not ratified the Optional Protocol on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography. It was also noted that only eight African governments (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius and South Africa) had ratified the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, as of December 2007. Second to the UNCRC ratified by all countries considered in this report, the most widely ratified or acceded treaty is the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No.182), which all governments except Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone had ratified.

Ratification, of course, is only one point of departure. Another is the extent to which international instruments are domesticated or harmonised with national laws. A third of the African countries surveyed did not have legal provisions for protection against child trafficking. In one-fourth of the reviewed countries, there was no legislation prohibiting harmful traditional practices. In contrast, domestic laws in all of the 52 African countries reviewed provide protection against sexual abuse

CONCULSION

In conclusion it can be reviewed that the African childhood is characterised by a number of short comings which makes the process through childhood a struggle. The childhood is not provided for with the basics which are there rights such as water, health, education, food, access to information among on which denial of the basic threaten the so existence of the African child. Various indicators can also be used to measure the existence or upholding of children’s rights such as government expenditure on matters that affect children, access to health, education in terms of enrolment, child participation, and ratification of international and regional child rights among wide array of indicators.