“ An Africa Fit for Children”
A
CERWC
Tribune
Vol 1: Issue 001 - April 2014
www.acerwc.org
The bi-annual Publication of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child - ACERWC
In this issue:
2. Editorial Note
2.
22nd ACERWC Session
4.
Lobbying missions
6.
ACPF and the monitoring
of the African children’s
Charter
8.
Launching of the Ratification and Reporting Campaign
under the Africa children
charter
Upcoming:
- General Comment on Article 6
of the ACRWC
- Day of the African Child
(DAC) 2014 “ Child Friendly,
quality, free and compulsory
education for all children in
Africa”
- Launching of the Campaign
in the RECs
Synergizing the work of the ACERWC with other AU
Organs: with Human Rights mandates
H
ACERWC Inside...
by Ayalew Getachew Assefa, Legal Researcher - ACERWC Secretariat
istory shows that discussions leading to
countries, at their 16th Ordinary Session in
the formulation of the African human rights
Liberia, requested the Secretary General of
system began as early as 1961 when the Interna-
the Organization of the African Unity (OAU)
tional Commission of Jurists convened the African
to convene a meeting of government experts
Conference on the Rule of Law in Lagos, Nigeria.
to prepare a preliminary draft of an Afri-
At the end of the Conference a resolution, com-
can Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
monly called the ‘Law of Lagos’, was adopted. The
resolution invites African governments to study
Accordingly,
the
African
Char
ter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is
the possibility of adopting an African Convention
one of the constituent elements of the Af-
of Human Rights which would be safeguarded by
rican Human Rights System, was adopt-
a creation of a court of appropriate jurisdiction.
ed by the Assembly of Heads of States
Accordingly, in 1969, a seminar was organized
and
in Cairo to study the possibility of the establish-
1981 in Nairobi, Kenya and
ment of regional commissions on human rights
with special reference to Africa. After that,
various seminars and conferences were held
which discussed the possibility of establishing a
regional human rights protection system in Africa.
This continuous effort hit its target
in 1979 when the Heads of States of African
Governments
of
the
OAU
in
June
this treaty en-
tered into force five years later in 1986.
The Charter provides for the establishment of an African Commission on Human
and Peoples’ Rights (ACmHPR), charged
with the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights on the continent.
continues on Page 2