Youth campaign for a children’s commissioner

CHILDREN from advocacy organisation Molo Songololo are off to Pretoria this weekend to lobby for an independent commissioner to uphold their rights.

Molo Songololo is a nonprofit organisation, based in Observatory, focused on promoting children’s and teenagers’ rights and responsibilities. A children’s consultation is taking place in Pretoria and is hosted by Save The Children-South Africa (STC-SA).

It is focused on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).

The charter, which South Africa signed in 2000, is a continental framework which affirms the basic rights of children.

The charter states that children have a right to participate in decisions that affect them.

These rights are provided for in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child as well as in South African child law.

STC- SA has asked Molo Songololo’s director, Patric Solomons, to be the main facilitator and to design a programme for the children.

“They (the children) have been lobbying the government to get a commissioner to represent children’s rights and responsibilities.

“They have also written up a report to the United Nations ( UN) on the rights of the child,” said Solomons.

In the run-up to this weekend the organisation held outreach programmes across the Western Cape.

Ronnie Ngalo, youth programmes co- ordinator of Molo Songololo, who led the programme at Simunye High School in Delft, said pupils from grades 5-12 had discussed issues such as: lack of proper education; exploitation; children forced to be breadwinners; and corporal punishment.

Children from the NGO Molo Songolo in Observatory with director Patric Solomons.