– Several activities were organized to mark the International Day of the African Child with the following theme selected this year: “25 years after the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Well-Fare of the Child: let us accelerate our efforts to eliminate child’s marriage in Africa”.

The celebrations began very early with a “friendly match among children” in the Stadium “Unité de la Cité”. Then, joined by the local administrative officials, participants marched from the stadium to “Espace Santé Jeunes” to attend the rest of the program which, amongst others, included songs, play lets, poems, presentation on the Child’s protection Act and allowances as well as speeches by the Uvira Children’ Parliament and MONUSCO-Uvira’s Child Protection Section.

For the actors intervening in the Youth sector, twenty years later after adopting the African Charter on the Rights and Well-Fare of the Child, very little progress has been made in the sense of improving children’s condition in the territory of Uvira, South Kivu. “The Charter has remained a dead letter”, regrets the local NGO, further indicating “it is just one more Charter, an ineffective international legal instrument… “.

Poverty is mainly at the root of this situation that affects families; the weight of traditions and customs, the instability caused by successive wars and the persisting insecurity in that part of the DRC where children, like women, continue to pay a heavy price: forceful conscription into armed groups, sex slavery, hard labor to cater to the needs of families…Children can be seen at any time of the day walking more than 30 kilometers, pushing tricycles loaded with goods from Uvira to Gatumba in Burundi.

NGO IDAY Kivu, on its part, said amidst the celebration of the International Day of the African Child and Youth that they conducted a study in February 2015 on the situation of children in Uvira. The study revealed that over 2000 girls and boys aged less than 18 are practicing prostitution without any legal prosecution being taken against either their parents or those civilly responsible. Moreover, some young girls dropped out of school and left their families to indulge in sexual promiscuity, due to parents’ irresponsibility. Those young girls, according to IDAY, are regularly raped by adults and become mothers or fathers too early. The study further reports that the young girls visit pubs, night clubs, brothels and even worshiping places as a breeding ground for young girls’ sexual promiscuity.

IDAY and other partners appealed for the authorities’ increased involvement in the fight against children’s exploitation through the legal channel, by cracking down on the procurers’ networks exploiting children and single mothers.

Jean-Tobie Okala