Page |9 for the prevention of sexual abuse, harassment, or exploitation of students by peers or education sector employees; enactment of legislation that shall prohibit education sector employees from engaging in sexual activities with students. Amendments to existing laws: Education Act Amendment (2010) made schooling free of charge and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 – 13 years. The Penal Code was also updated in 2010 to move away from a common law based system to restate many well-established common law principles in statutory form. The amendments to the criminal law were at that time conscious of Lesotho’s ratification of both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Unions Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Difficulties Although the proportion of the GoL’s annual budget allocated to children’s matters is significantly higher than previous years, much of the funding for programs is provided by international development aid donors such as UNICEF, Global Fund, EU, Irish Aid and USAID. The GoL is aware that the budget in 2014 is insufficient to fully implement, for instance, the CPW Act in all of its forms. The CPW Act is currently undergoing a full costing exercise, being undertaken by a consultancy firm of economists. It is hoped that when items yet to be implemented have an attached price, levying the Ministry of Finance for further funding will render more success. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to children’s rights and welfare in Lesotho is sociocultural – that is, a lack of understanding and acceptance of new laws when they are in contradiction to social norms and cultural practices. For instance the practice of sending young boys to tend livestock for long periods of time, known as herding, without proper shelter, food and no education is in direct contravention of many provisions of the CPW Act. It has however been practiced by many generations of Basotho and is an economic necessity in many poverty stricken families, so it is culturally acceptable to infringe this law. Significantly more awareness raising within remote communities is needed before these issues can begin to be addressed. Lesotho now has a heavy base of legislative instruments, many of which are not employed to their fullest potential. A severe lack of relevant structures & institutions for the proper execution of provisions under the Act is a major hurdle. There is also a shortage of guiding regulatory documents for the implementation of the new Act. Both of these issues lead in turn to ineffective and often significantly delayed enforcement of provisions. The shortages mentioned are due to a combination of financial constraints, lack of human capacity and willingness, as well as a much-needed training on legislation and policies not being available.