“Every child has his or her own dignity. If a child is to be […] imagined as an
individual with a distinctive personality, and not merely as a miniature adult
waiting to reach full size, he or she cannot be treated as a mere extension of
his or her parents, umbilically destined to sink or swim with them.”1
Justice Albie Sachs
1. Introduction
1. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the
Committee) was established with a mandate to promote and protect the rights
enshrined in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African
Children‟s Charter). In particular, the Committee is expected to formulate and lay
down principles and rules aimed at protecting the rights and welfare of children in
Africa.2
2. Through the Reporting Procedure provided for under Article 43 of the African
Children‟s Charter, the Committee interacts with States Parties by reviewing their
reports and issuing observations and recommendations aimed at improving the
implementation of the rights of the child where the desired standard of
implementation is deemed not to have been achieved.
3.
The Committee recognizes that children face many violations of their rights
under the African Children's Charter when their parents and/or primary caregivers
come into conflict with the law. Through its consideration of States Parties'
Reports, and other activities falling within its mandate, the African committee has
become aware that children can be affected by both the stigma of their parent or
primary caregiver's involvement with the criminal justice system as well as by the
trauma of separation caused by arrest, pre-trial detention and imprisonment.3
1
S V M (CCT 53/06) [2007] ZACC 18 (September 2007) at para 18.
Article 42 (a) (ii), African Children‟s Charter.
3
For example, in the country report submitted by Cameroon, the Government of Cameroon stipulates
that mothers are separated from their children once imprisoned. The African Committee has also
issued concluding observations for the States of Uganda and Tanzania regarding article 30 of the
African Children‟s Charter. For example, in the Concluding Observations to Tanzania in 2010, the
African Committee urged the State Party to enact 'comprehensive provisions in the juvenile justice
standards ... in accordance with Articles 17 & 30 of the ACRWC.' In the Concluding Observations to
Uganda also in 2010, the African Committee observed that 'the Report doesn‟t provide information
2
3