• Take urgent action to end all discriminatory traditional practices against
women; (Ministry of Women Affairs and CSOs, The Police and other Law
enforcement agencies] and,
• Empower the Ministry of Women and CSOs to raise awareness amongst
women about their rights. (The Ministry of Women’s Affairs and CSOs).
Objective 8: Promotion and Protection of Children’s Rights
I.
Summary of CSAR
236
The CSAR observes that Ethiopia’s Constitution and laws provide comprehensive
legal protection for children. Article 36 of the Constitution guarantees a number
of children’s rights, and it also lays down a basic principle of law pertaining
to the protection of children: the best interest of the child must be the guiding
principle underpinning all actions concerning children taken by public and private
institutions, including legislative bodies, courts, and administrative authorities.
Articles 576, 589, 596, and 597 of the Criminal Code of 2004, as well as the
Family Code, provide specific protections for children. The Criminal Code also
shields minors from undue legal liabilities and punishments, preferring to apply
appropriate rehabilitation approaches.
Advances Made toward Improving the Plight of Children
237
The CSAR identifies the follow improvements reportedly made in ameliorating
the plight of children since the establishment of a democratic dispensation in the
country, in 1991:
• Enshrining the special rights of children in the Federal Constitution,
thereby demonstrating a fundamental commitment to protecting and
advancing children’s causes;
• Revising the Criminal Code to include new provisions that penalise
harmful customary practices causing enormous suffering to children;
• Ratifying the principal international instruments that protect the rights
of children. These include the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children
(ACRWC);
• Establishing a Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to implement prochild policies, including those that flow from international instruments
adopted by government. Progress in this respect is guarded in view of
the fact that the Ministry is yet to function with full effectiveness.
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