(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook
29
leave for the cities, often leaving their children with extended family
(where it has been shown they are at a heightened risk of abuse) 24 or in
the most extreme cases migration can be across national borders. This
can range from smaller displacements, such as the 90 000 people
displaced by floods in the Zambezi River Valley during 2008, to more
than 2.6 million people displaced by the drying up of large parts of Lake
Chad.25 Whether because of internal displacements, often the result of
a natural disaster, or beyond their borders, people in camps for
internally displaced persons or refugees face further violations. In such
camps there is often no provision for separate facilities for women and
children, ‘who may put off going to the toilet until it is dark’ in order to
have some privacy, which then exposes them to ‘the risk of sexual
violence’.26 Other challenges related to privacy relate to the ‘ability and
willingness’ of mothers to breastfeed in crowded camp conditions, the
absence of which leads to an increased risk of ‘malnutrition and
infectious disease in infants’. Another challenge is the lack of priority
given to education in these camps, with ‘only half of child refugees
globally […] enrolled in primary schools globally’.27 Finally, in the
chaos resulting from migration, more particularly following natural
disasters, there is a risk of children being separated from their families,
which heightens the risk of sexual and other abuse.28 In cross-border
migration it is particularly adolescent girls who are at risk of sexual
violence and exploitation, ‘including at borders when corrupt
government officials or smugglers may demand sex in exchange for
onward passage’.29
As discussed briefly above, climate induced migration is closely
linked to conflict, both as a cause and a consequence. There is some
evidence that ‘the shrinking of Lake Chad to a tenth of its former size’ is
the result of climate change in conjunction with over-use, and the
resultant migration of 2.6 million people, including 1.5 million
children, looking for alternative water and food sources ‘contributed to
the pressures triggering the conflict in the region’.30 The conflict in
Darfur has also been characterised by the previous UN Secretary
General as a ‘climate’ conflict.31 Such migration and conflict resulting
from climatic pressures lead to increased risk of violence against
24
UNESCAP ‘Regional Stakeholders’ Consultation and Planning on the Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Sex Abuse in the Pacific’ (2007).
25
CDKN (n 14 above) 11.
26 UNICEF (n 11 above) 17.
27
UNICEF (n 11 above) 11; UNICEF ‘Uprooted: the growing crisis for refugee and
migrant children’ (2016).
28
Children in a Changing Climate Coalition (n 16 above) 24; Ruppel (n 16 above) 284.
29
DJJ O’Connell ‘Telling tales: child migration and child trafficking: stories of
trafficking obscure the realities for migrant children’ (2013) 37 Child Abuse & Neglect
1069-1079.
30
UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office ‘Children on the move, children
left behind’ (2016) www.unicef.org/media/files/Children_on_the_Move_Children_
Left_Behind.pdf (accessed 12 October 2017); UNICEF (n 11 above) 18.
31
Ban Ki Moon ‘A climate culprit In Darfur’ in Washington Post 16 June 2007 http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061501857.
html (accessed 12 October 2017).