Back to Index

Every child has a right to be protected from abuse
Justice for Children Trust
July 23, 2010

Last week we discussed the need for every child to access information in order to promote their life, survival and development, protection and participation in issues that affect them. This week we will explore the need for every child to be protected from all forms of abuse and exploitation with a particular focus on sexual abuse as one form of child abuse.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child places an obligation on governments to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, in particular, inducing or coercing a child to engage in illegal sexual activities, using children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual acts and using children to produce illegal sexual documentations such as pornographic material. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child also makes it mandatory for state parties to put in place measures that discourage sexual abuse and exploitation of children. These measures do not only involve the enacting of laws that prohibit and punish offenders, but include the need to ensure that such laws are implemented. Children and caregivers should also be aware of the existence of such laws and most importantly, the existence of national institutions that they can confidently make use of in the event of abuse. Whilst the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provides that "the promotion and protection of the rights and welfare of the child also implies the performance of duties on the part of everyone" in its preamble, it is quite clear that the state's role is the most important of all, by virtue of it signing and ratifying such treaties for the benefit of children. This duty can not therefore be abdicated.

Whilst one may argue that the existence of domestic laws such as the Children's Act, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and the Domestic Violence Act promote the protection of children from sexual abuse, these legal provisions on their own in the absence of other support structures are not adequate. For instance, the law exists in order to punish the perpetrator for sexually abusing a child, but there is no administrative provisions to fully support a victim of abuse. A child may as well find herself in an unenviable position of having to let her parents or caregivers encourage her to withdraw a criminal case against an abuser because he would have offered "compensation" to a victim's parents or marriage to the girl in lieu of answering to the charge of abuse. The child would have no alternative except to allow adults to make decisions that she may not like or that are likely to affect her future. If measures are put in place to provide alternative care for abused children, then reports of children getting married before they reach the age of consent are most likely to go down.

Reports of children being abused by their parents or caregivers abound. Such children need to be protected from those who are expected by the current legal provisions to protect them. This higher protection can only be given by the state and therefore has to be guaranteed in the Supreme Law of the land: the Constitution. Domestic legal provisions can only guarantee the bringing to book of a perpetrator but do not guarantee the full protection of a victim.

Some children are coerced to engage in illicit sexual activities such as prostitution and other commercial sexual activities because of their unfortunate circumstances. In cases of orphaned and vulnerable children, the state has an obligation to provide social security measures such as provision of essential services and needs so that they do not end up being coerced into illicit activities that expose them further. In other words, it is not adequate to put in place laws and policies that protect children from abuse; there is need to go further and prevent such abuse as well as providing other necessary support to the abused child. This holistic support should be guaranteed by the Constitution in its Bill of Rights in order to make violation of children's right to protection from abuse justiciable on all duty-of care-bearers.

Visit the Justice for Children Trust fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP