International focus has been on children yet again this year. This month the world’s attention was drawn to child labour. Recently, Africa paid tribute to its children in memory of those hundreds of young boys and girls who, 33 years ago on June 16, 1976, were shot down on the streets of Soweto in South Africa. On that acrimonious day, thousands of black schoolchildren took to the streets in a march to protest the low standard of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. The unfortunate incident attracted two weeks of protests during which more than 100 people were killed and over a thousand injured. Referred to as the Day of the African Child, the observation of the day was instituted in 1991 by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now The African Union (AU), in honour of those Soweto children who were killed and the courage of those who marched. The day also draws attention to the lives of African children today. The day takes my mind back to our cultural beliefs and practices those 33 odd years ago. I have asked myself questions like: What was the reaction of those older people when they heard about the march and the shootings that followed? Did people sympathise because it was heavy handedness in an apartheid regime or because they were children? I am sure many of our elders around the continent would have talked them down because the culture we are brought up in does not even encourage children to be heard more so to go on a public demonstration to demand a right. We are not trained to question the actions of our elders. Ridiculous as it may be, an outspoken child runs the risk of being branded as disrespectful. Even to this day, some of our cultural practices as Africans do not uphold child rights, neither do we encourage our children in life. In some homes today, children are the last to eat and will be the ones to forfeit education and search for menial jobs to support the family income should the family get hard up. In failed marriages, the children are always the ones who suffer. Do we have any moral right then, as a continent that has denied our children so much, to celebrate that same child? If our leaders call to attention the lives of African children on June 16, why should we listen to them when, year after year, these same leaders supervise shameful deeds against children and continue to flout child rights. The horrendous accounts of child soldiers in different parts of our continent are things we cannot wish away and will forever remain a scar on Africa. When for 10 to 15 years some of our African countries were engaged in wars, the education of the children in those countries suffered. Today, the wars are over and so the children who for 10 to 15 years never saw the walls of a classroom are now going to go to class one or kindergarten at their teens. Have we not failed such African children? Child trafficking is still being practised on the continent. Our laws have not been punitive enough and so we get people, including parents, who are ready to sell their children into ‘slavery’ across borders or for primitive rituals just for mere pittance in return. A few years ago, the story of a child trafficking syndicate in an East African country was uncovered in the British media. In our individual countries, child trafficking continues because the laws are relaxed and people continue to get away with it. Child prostitution cuts across the borders of Africa. In a BBC report last week, children as young as 14 are being driven into sex work and other related activities due to poverty. According to the report, children in a southern African country are forced to sell their bodies for as little as the cost of a packet of biscuit. That is how much our continent has failed its children. For how long can we hide behind poverty and lead our children into the kind of dangers that will mar their adult future? Child prostitution here in Ghana has been brought to attention many times. The issues become a concern for a day or two but once the media attention dies, the will to tackle it also dies. The case of the infamous brothel at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra comes to mind. Soldier Bar has been in the news a few times and recently necessitated a police swoop and investigation. We were told then that the brothel was at the centre of child prostitution, among other things. The brothel continued to function until a couple of weeks ago when authorities of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) visited the place and gave a two-week ultimatum to the owners to demolish the structure. According to a Daily Graphic report of June 5 2009, the AMA said the owners of the bar did not have any permit to operate the structure. What? So after all the media and police stir last year on Soldier Bar, we went back and folded our arms for business to go on as usual? The African child definitely needs a tear or two because their protection and rights are nobody’s concern. The same attitude goes for child labour. Nothing much has been done to protect children from hazardous work at the hands of selfish entrepreneurs despite the lip service we have paid to it and the concern shown globally. Two years ago, there was hue and cry by some major Western producers threatening to boycott specifically cocoa from West Africa and other raw materials from Africa and Asia because we were using child labour. Some sensitisation was done by the Ghana Employers Association, though, but nothing more was heard. Just last week in Parliament, we were told by the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare that the nation was now finalising a seven-year National Plan of Action (NPA) to eradicate the worst forms of child labour by 2015. Child labour deprives our children of school age the opportunity to learn for a useful life in future. Such children are working in dangerous situations putting their health and their future at risk. On our streets are children who should be in the classroom. The story is the same at some spots on our highways whether heading from Accra to Kumasi or to Takoradi. We look on as a nation as these children not only put their future at risk but also their lives. If you happen to be in Accra central, around the old UTC area, around 6 p.m. any week day, you will marvel at the sight of numerous young girls, with some carrying babies, heading for home — Agbogbloshie. These are child porters, also known as Kayayei, who troop down from northern Ghana to the south on a daily basis in search of money. Their appalling living conditions at Agbogbloshie have been highlighted in the media and by NGOs for a decade and yet, the migration continues. Who is pursuing their interest? In the media, advertisers are using children to communicate improper messages without sanctions. Children are sent to bars and alcoholic shops to purchase alcoholic drinks and we see nothing wrong with it. In other advanced societies, children below a certain age are not permitted on such premises and the law is carefully guarded and enforced. Similarly, the laws are enforced on child delinquencies. Schools are assigned with education welfare officers whose duties are to follow up on child absenteeism from school. If we should continue to celebrate and make meaning of June 16 as the Day of the African Child, then laws relating to the welfare of children should begin to be of greater concern and backed with action. There has been too much talk on child rights. The convention on the rights of the child should be non-negotiable. We continue to preach special care and protection for children. We talk loudest about children’s right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influence, abuse and exploitation but fail to back our talk with action. The laws of the convention on child rights, which majority of African governments have signed on to,, continue to be flouted. But not until our attitudes towards children’s issues change and the laws made to bite, we should continue to shed a tear for the African child for the rights denied the Soweto children 33 years ago has taken on different forms today. Source: Daily Guide