ACERWC African Committee of Experts on the Rights & Welfare of the Child PREFACE The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) conducted a study on Children on the Move following concerns around the growing number of children on the move within the African continent. The Committee observed that there were challenges with regard to upholding the rights and welfare of children on the move and that there are gaps on the type of protection measures and treatment that is be accorded to such children within our beloved Continent. It has also observed that this lack of a comprehensive response mechanism for protecting children affects them in different ways and that the impact as well as levels of vulnerability differs depending on individual situations. However, despite the different circumstance, in most cases children on the move are all exposed to similar patterns of violations of their basic rights. In some contexts, such violations have reached unacceptable levels that if not addressed risk becoming not only human rights violations but will become humanitarian and human development crisis. Despite these challenges, responses to date often aim at addressing the phenomenon of movement of people without necessarily aiming at the protection of the children involved and without taking into consideration the best interests as articulated in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The study provides an overview of the situation of children on the move within Africa and assessed the extent to which Member States of the African Union have established normative and institutional structures to address the needs of children on the move in their territories. It presents an informed overview of the routes that children move along in within the continent, the reasons why they move and where these children move to as well as the risks that they are exposed to whilst on the move. The study also scrutinises the legal frameworks affecting child mobility in the continent. The findings of the study shed light on the main challenges faced by children on the move with in Africa; including discrimination, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation, child abuse and torture, loss of identity, name and nationality, lack of access to education and economic opportunities, child labour, trafficking, smuggling and exploitation, violation of the right to a family, parental care and protection, and denial of health services. In particular, the study found that most the fundamental rights of children on the move including their best interests are either not protected or are tacitly abused. For instance, the study indicates that there are situations where children on the move are returned to their countries of origin despite the threats they may face again and which triggered their movement in the first place. In sending them back to their countries of origin the best interest of the child is often disregarded and the reasons why they are on the move is often not explored. The study thus seeks to draw attention of Member States to the need to urgently address the challenges that children on the move are facing. The need to develop and implement protection systems for such children requires commitment to the best interests of the child and other child protection principles. If developed such protection mechanisms provide a window of opportunity for effective and holistic interventions for children on the move. 2