A delegation of officials of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), is on a two-day working visit to Somalia to solicit the support of Somali authorities in the ratification of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The visiting delegation is led by the ACERWC Vice-president Ms. Marie Christine Bocoum, who is also the AU Special Rapporteur on Ending Child Marriage.
The delegation will hold meetings with senior Federal Government officials, among them the Federal Minister of Women and Human Rights Development, senior leadership of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), officials from UN Agencies and Somali Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), dealing with children’s rights issues.
“We are carrying out this advocacy mission to bring the countries to ratify it. Ratifying the charter will help the country also in implementing the rights of the children in the country. They will also be part of our programme of assistance, training, monitoring. However, if they have not ratified we cannot do all that with them,” said the ACERWC Vice-president.
The delegation had paid a courtesy call on the Deputy AU Special Representative for Somalia Mr. Simon Mulongo, who said AMISOM was doing everything in its powers, to stabilize the country, to ensure children grow up in a safe and secure environment.
“This is the time of the beginning of transition. And the ratification therefore will come in handy to ensure that the Government is holistic about the matters of the child,” remarked Mulongo.
ACERWC is the African continental body charged with monitoring the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). Forty-eight African Union Member States have ratified the charter to date.
Somalia is among 7 countries that are yet to ratify the Charter, alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tomé & Principe, South Sudan, and Tunisia.
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