• Allow training beneficiaries to integrate the content of these child rights instruments into
professional activities and practices;
• Build capacity to promote behavioural change.
20. In order to reinforce the programmes of popularisation of the rights of the child, actions are
undertaken for the translation into Kirundi, the national language, of legal texts and training
manuals. Clusters of trainers have been set up to inform and sensitise the population on the rights of
the child. Public and private media play an essential role in promoting the rights of the child. Thus,
a weekly programme on human rights and children’s rights is produced and broadcast on the
National Radio by the Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights and Prevention of Genocide.
Articles on human rights and children's rights are produced and published in the official journal "
The New Burundi" by the same Centre.
21. In addition, international NGOs and civil society organisations working for children contribute
effectively to the dissemination of the Charter and awareness raising on the rights of the child. For
example, the Government of Burundi, in collaboration with OIDEB (Ineza Observatory for the
Rights of the Child in Burundi), with the support of UNICEF, drew up a training module on the
rights of the child .
22. It should be noted that children themselves participate in peer education. This was the case for
the 25 children journalists trained and supervised by UNICEF who facilitate programmes on the
rights of the child, including one community programme.
23. With regard to the development, validation and dissemination of reports to the general public,
this report was developed through a participatory process involving all State and non-governmental
bodies concerned with children's issues. As for its validation, it took place through following the
discussions held during a national workshop bringing together the relevant actors. It will be
disseminated amongst all stakeholders the distribution of copies of the report and the organisation
of regional feedback seminars.
24. Follow-up of the recommendations to be formulated by the African Committee of Experts on
the Rights and Welfare of the Child will be carried out by the Standing Committee for drafting
initial and periodic reports with the co-ordination of the Department of Treaty Bodies, Special
Procedures and Universal Periodic Review and other mechanisms of the United Nations System
hosted by the Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender.
III. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD
25. Law No. 1/05 of 22 April 2009 amending the Penal Code incorporates the definition of the child
enshrined respectively in Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 2 of the
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. According to Article 512 of the Code, "the
term child means any person under the age of eighteen". This law sets the age of criminal
responsibility at 15 years and mitigates the criminal liability of children under 18 years of age.
26. With regard to the civil majority, the Code of Persons and the Family in its articles 335 and 337
indicates that the civil majority is 21 years old. In this regard, there is an ambivalence in that the
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