recommendation where the it strongly recommended that the Government of South Africa harmonize the definition of the child under civil, customary, and common laws in line with article 2 of the Charter and to ensure the effective implementation of article 21(2) of the Charter which prohibits child marriage and sets the minimum age for all types of marriages to be set at 18. C) General Principles i. Non-Discrimination 9. The Committee notes with great concern that Migrant children and children of foreign parents in South Africa are discriminated against and face xenophobia from their peers, teachers and are sometimes barred from accessing schools and other basic services because of reported illegal entry or stay in the country. The Committee has learned that at the beginning of each school year, a number of groups of children including undocumented migrant children, documented refugee and asylum seeker children are denied admission to school. The Committee also notes with concern that the barriers and/or denial of service to these children is not limited to education and includes healthcare, child protection services, and birth registration services. Therefore, the Committee reiterates its previous recommendation and calls upon South African government to eliminate all forms of discrimination against these groups of children by avoiding defacto and de jure barriers hindering them from accessing basic services such as education, health care, birth registration, child protection services and so on. In particular, the Committee urges the Government of South Africa to take legislative and other necessary measures to ensure that asylum seekers, migrant, refugee and stateless children access basic services without requirement of presenting document. II. Best interests of the child 10. The Committee notes with appreciation the State Party’s Report on the effort that the Government is employing to consider the principle of best interest of the childin matters of criminal procedure, as well as the manner in which the principle is used by the judiciary, among others. However, the Committee notes with concern the lack of information of efforts made by the Government in other areas to ensure that the best interests of the child are always considered. Thus, the Committee recommends that the Government survey other areas and document the efforts made, as well as their results and provide information to the Committee in the next periodic State Party report. III. The Right to Life, Survival and Development 11. The Committee appreciates that the Government has developed and rolled out the National School Safety Framework (NSSF), which is a tool for School Management Teams (SMT) and School Governing bodies (SGBs) for promoting holistic safety 4

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