From adult-centric rhetoric to young people's roles in the struggle for social justice

So, June 16th is the Day of the African Child ... What does it mean?
For most African young people, the Day of the African Child does not
mean a whole lot. Many will continue their daily lives -- working in
fields and factories, caring for younger siblings or older relatives,
begging on the streets of sprawling urban centres, fighting in armed
groups and militias, tending sheep and cattle, selling their wares
and services in markets and on the streets - without even knowing
that June 16th is different from any other.

Those who are aware of the Day of the African Child are likely to be
enrolled in some kind of formal education, or 'mobilised' for
activities by NGOs, UN agencies and governments. For these young
people, the Day of the African Child may be simply that - one day in
which they are told something about children's rights that contrasts
with the other 364 days of the year during which they are ignored or
silenced. Other African young people would not consider themselves to
be children. In many traditional African societies, puberty is a
biological change that has social implications: after puberty, one is
no longer treated as a child, although one may not have full status
within social hierarchies based on age and sex.

For many civil society organisations, the Day of the African Child
has become a celebration of the entry into force of the African
Charter of the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). The ACRWC,
together with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
provide a comprehensive framework for protecting and promoting
children's social, economic and political rights. Many civil society
organisations thus use June 16th as a day to reflect on the progress
made towards the institutionalisation of child rights in law and to
call for greater implementation of these legal standards.

For many African governments, June 16th provides a platform for self-
aggrandizement. Government leaders often highlight the progress they
have made towards upholding and implementing their international and
domestic commitments towards children and make more promises about
what they will do in the future. This means that the Day of the
African Child ensures that children's issues are on the political
agenda - for at least one day a year.

In other words, the Day of the African Child is primarily a day for
adults, in various capacities and with a variety of motivations.
Apart from a few tokenistic children's voices (often under the guise
of 'participation'), the overwhelming chorus of speeches, television
and radio appearances, and written words (including this commentary)
will come from adults. The marginalisation of children's voices is
particularly ironic and unfortunate since the day was initially
introduced to commemorate a 1976 march by black students in Soweto,
South Africa to protest the inferior quality of their education and
to demand the right to be taught in their own language. The
Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) in 1991
declared June 16th a day to remember the hundreds of students, who
were gunned down, killed and wounded, during the march and subsequent
protests. The fact that a day ostensibly for commemorating children's
political action is dominated by adults reflects a broader
marginalisation of children in the struggle for social justice.

Who cares?

Since the Day of the African Child is largely dominated by adults,
why should we care about it at all? Responses to this question often
refer to the importance of children as the future generations and/or
pull on heartstrings by listing a litany of the ways in which
children are victimised. These common refrains again reflect an adult-
centric approach to children as semi-human beings: only important in
terms of their future contribution to societies, or as victims in the
present.

This is why the question about who cares becomes so important. The
focus here is not on the 'who cares?' throw-away question in response
to issues that are deemed unimportant, but rather who cares in terms
of who is best placed to understand and articulate children's issues.
Viewed in this way, the answer clearly appears to be: "Children, of
course!" Once children are recognised as active economic and social
members of families, communities and societies, it is much more
difficult to justify their current political marginalisation not only
from children's issues, but also from broader social justice issues.
In other words, we need to refocus our attention on the reason why
the Day of the African Child was initiated in the first place - to
commemorate political action by African young people in their
struggle against oppression.

Young people's roles in the struggle for social justice

Since the entry into force of the ACRWC and CRC, children's rights
advocates across Africa and globally have worked tirelessly to
introduce the language of rights around children's issues. However,
while claims around children's rights are a necessary component in
the struggle for social justice, they are not sufficient in and of
themselves. Since social justice is broader than human rights, we
need to complement the work done on promoting and protecting
children's rights by recognising children as citizens and actors in
building just societies. While young people have important roles to
play in the struggle for social justice - as economic and social
actors who directly confront such issues, and as political actors
with views on their own situation - civil society organisations
rarely address children's issues, concerns and opinions.