|  16 June 2010 -- In Soweto, South Africa, thousands of black school children took to the streets in 1976, in a march more than half a mile long, to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot down; and in the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.
To honour the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity. The Day also draws attention to the lives of African children today.
Former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Katarina Tomasevski, wrote that "Constitutional guarantees reflect the requirements of international human rights law. They mandate primary education to be free and compulsory and oblige governments to ensure that this is so immediately or, at least, progressively. Making education free and compulsory requires public funding, but governmental and intergovernmental policies for financing education do not follow what the law mandates" (Tomasevski, 2006, p.6). According to the Right to Education Project, many African countries lack legal guarantees of free education and have policies that charge fees for schooling. Some countries do have constitutional guarantees of free education, but laws are not implemented in government policy. Charging fees excludes the poorest children from formal education.
Source: UNICEF, Right to Education Project
Selected learning materials
Our Homes, Our Lives, Ourselves: A Fun Book to Help Young People Get the Issues Right Concerning Women in Human Settlements Development
A booklet intended to help teenagers get an idea what it is like to be a woman. They do this by reading, thinking and investigating the role of women in various ways. The booklet includes a board game ('The Game of Life') and sections on finance, land, information, networking, environment.
Siniko. Towards a Human Rights Culture in Africa: A manual for teaching human rights (Amnesty International)
This manual is for teachers and educators in Africa who work with young people both in formal and non-formal education.
International treaties on children's rights:
- The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1999)
- Simplified version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Useful links
Millennium Campaign
UNICEF fact sheet on birth registration (International Day of the African Child 2003)
Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
Right to Education Project
| |
