Tuesday July 31, 2018
Simon Mulongo, the Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (DSRCC) for Somalia, holds a meeting with Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the child in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 30 July 2018. AMISOM Photo / Omar Abdisalan
Mogadishu, 30 July 2018 – 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.