The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: Simple Copy or Contextualized Supplement to the Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Thierno Souleymane BARRY
Abstract
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereafter the Convention) adopted in 1989 devotes all the attention of the community of States to children. This time, the rights of the child have been translated into legal terms, in terms of rights, human rights mean and not just in terms of compassion for a vulnerable being a child.
This legal instrument can only have a reason if it is correctly applied within states, regions. Appropriation of the text is therefore the guarantee of the success of the instrument. The child occupies an important place in the cultural context of a given region; the rights should reflect this assertion. They should have a cultural base to be applied and gain all their effectiveness. In Africa, an African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (hereinafter the African Charter) has come to meet this requirement.
However, we can ask the following fundamental questions: Has the African Charter responded to the need to contextualize the Convention, or is it a pale copy of this Convention? Doesn't the effectiveness of child protection depend on contextualization of the universal instrument (the Convention) by the regional instrument (the African Charter)? In other words, isn't adapting universally recognized rights to the African context the best approach to make the protection of children in Africa efficient? How far is this adaptation possible without betraying universally recognized principles?
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in addition to being a continuation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, constitutes an adapted instrument, an adequate response for the effective protection of the rights of the child. African. In this, it provides an example of regional contextualization of international human rights instruments. The article will attempt to demonstrate the originality of the African framework for the protection of children's rights as well as possible improvements to make the framework more effective.
Keywords
References
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Submitted date:
03/22/2021
Reviewed date:
05/26/2021
Accepted date:
05/27/2021
Publication date:
05/27/2021
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