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This brief - a supplement to the Stop the War on Children 2020: Gender matters report - highlights the situation of children in conflict zones in West and Central Africa with a focus on gender. It explores how girls and boys are all increasingly affected and exposed to conflict in different ways (e.g.: recruitment into armed groups, sexual violence) and how 4 out of…
This article discusses the major population displacement that unfolded in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin. Local communities have offered shelter to 2.6 million people who were forced to leave their homes. This document discusses how the international community needs to act immediately to scale up humanitarian assistance in the Lake Chad Basin region.
Factors that have added to the complexity of the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region include ongoing violence and conflict since 2013, poverty, and climate change. Many children have been reported to be a part of the conflict to the…
Thirteen agencies* working in Africa have issued a Joint Statement calling on African governments to strengthen their child protection systems to secure the right of children to a life free from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect in both emergency and non-emergency settings. The agencies, which include UNICEF, as well as networks of NGOs, delivered their recommendations during the 22nd Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, on 6 November 2013, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Joint Statement draws on a…
Cette déclaration a été développée à partir d’un ensemble grandissant de pratiques et de faits probants sur le renforcement des systèmes de protection de l’enfance en Afrique subsaharienne1 et s’inspire du dialogue et des résultats d’une conférence interinstitutionnelle sur le sujet qui a eu lieu à Dakar au Sénégal en mai 2012.
Son objectif est (i) de présenter une vision commune des systèmes de protection de l’enfance en Afrique subsaharienne et d’expliquer pourquoi ils sont importants et méritent des investissements et (ii) lancer un appel à l’action auprès des…
Tens of thousands of children living on the streets of Kinshasa and other cities of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suffer extreme hardship and exposure to daily violence. Turned out of their homes and without family care and support, they are victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. With no secure access to food, shelter, or other basic needs, they are exploited by adults, including law enforcement personnel, who use them for illegal activities to the detriment of their health and welfare and in violation of their basic human rights. Of particular concern is the deliberate and…
The HIV epidemic and the international concern about orphans have contributed to exposing the plight of children in West and Central Africa who are living on the streets, who are trafficked and/ or exploited for child labour, or who are forced into combat in armed conflicts. The impact of these difficult life circumstances on the psychosocial well-being of children and the quality of existing services, however, have barely been investigated.
The overall aims of the study were to improve the offer of psychosocial support services for children in West and Central Africa and to stimulate the…
At the core of social protection is a concern for addressing vulnerability and risk. It is increasingly understood that social protection policy frameworks and programmes must be informed by a recognition of the diversity of vulnerabilities and risks, and the way in which these evolve across the lifecycle. This report focuses on children’s vulnerabilities and risks related to an absence of protection from violence, abuse and neglect, and the ways in which measures to address such vulnerabilities and risks can be more effectively integrated into social protection policy frameworks in the West…
This report examines and discusses the risks faced by African orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs); the costs and pros and cons of interventions working with OVCs; and provides guidance on what kinds of intervention or approaches might work in a given country context or situation.
The study emphasizes three concerns: the vulnerabilities associated with orphanhood require immediate attention; there is an urgent need to target assistance to the neediest children; although there is still no blueprint on the best way to scale up interventions, the World Bank’s multicountry AIDS programs…
Children are defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child as people under the age of 18. Youth, although commonly used to describe the age group between 15–25, is not a term recognized in legislation designed to protect children. It has, however, become a concept employed by regimes and rebels alike to mobilize Africa’s young population for political and military ends. African youth are caught in the chasm between childhood and the unattainable social, political and economic status that would define them as…
The twenty-first century presents a hostile face to many millions of children in many African countries. An increasing number of children are being forced to the streets as result of poverty, abuse, torture, rape abandonment or orphaned by AIDS. Human rights violations against children in the 1990s have become a common and disturbing occurrence in many African countries. Denial of basic human and legal rights including the right to life, liberty and security as a person to children are now a defining feature of the African socio-economic landscape.
This paper examines Africa's…