The International Day for the Elimination of Child Labour is being celebrated each year on June 12th. As we celebrate the World Day Against Child Labour 2021, with the theme “Act Now: End Child Labour!” we should focus on actions that will eliminate child labour in our community and country at large. This day was unanimously adopted in a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 and was aimed to urge government to do what is necessary to achieve Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’S).
A child is every human being below the age of 18 years. Child Labour is work that deprives a child or children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity. Child labour harms children mentally, physically, socially and morally. It interferes with their schooling, preventing them from attending or concentrating. It may involve them being enslaved, separated from their families, and exposed to serious hazards and illness.
The socio-political crisis in Cameroon and the covid-19 pandemic shockwaves accompanying it are placing unprecedented pressure on our children. The COVID-19 Pandemic and the socio-political crisis in Cameroon is causing a dramatic rise in the socio-economic vulnerability, in turn raising the opportunity cost of education and fuelling concerns that more families will turn to child labour to make ends meet. The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought about additional poverty to these already vulnerable populations and may reverse years of progress in the fight against child labour. School closures have aggravated the situation and many millions of children are working to contribute to the family income. The present crisis and pandemic has also made women, men and children more vulnerable to exploitation. Presently we find more under aged children either working as labourers or hawkers, children are forced to go and live with relatives, friends and strangers who treats them as mini slaves.
The “ AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS AND WELFARE OF THE CHILD”, clearly outline the rights and duties of a child, which one of the right is the right to education, right to health and health services, parental care and protection, just to mention a few. Going through this document and considering the way children in Africa and Cameroon in particular live, you will all attest that, this laws are just on the papers and are all window dressing because the rights of the child is been abused on a daily basis in Cameroon as we can find children below 18 years at ungodly hours hawking groundnuts, boiled egg, snails just to name a few. Some of this children carry out this economic activities out of their own will maybe because they know there is no better way to sustain the family that to help their parents out with the hawking, while others are forced to do so by their parents or guardians they are living with contrary to Article (15) of the “African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child” which states “Every child shall be protected from all forms of economic exploitation and from preforming any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.”
The ongoing anglophone crisis and the health pandemic has left more children uneducated as most schools in the Northwest and Southwest Region of Cameroon are forced to shut down because of insecurity and others been burnt down. Children do not longer find it safe to go to school, and some are forced to stay at home because of financial constraints. And for those who are opportune to move to nearby towns, they become dropouts as either their parents or guardians cannot meetup with the financial obligations of the schools. “Article 11 of the African Charter on The Rights and Welfare of the Child” talks about “Education.” Article 11(1) talks about education for all meaning despite our differences, no child should be left behind as far as education is concern. The same Article 11 (3a) states that, state parties should make sure free and compulsory basic education is provided to every child which in my opinion, our government has failed to meetup with the provisions in this article as education is presently one of the scarce commodity in Africa and in Cameroon in particular.
While other children are living comfortable in their homes or at school during school hours, other children are out there putting themselves in harm’s way just to make ends meet for themselves and their families as opposed to Article 3 of the above document which talks about “Non Discrimination”(every child shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedom recognized and guaranteed in this charter irrespective of the child’s or his/her parents’ or legal guardian’s race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national and social origin fortune, birth or other status which in my opinion, our government has failed to meetup with the provisions in this article as education is presently one of the scarce commodity in Africa and in Cameroon in particular.
Article 13 of the “African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child” is another area in which the state parties have failed to carry out their duties, as this article press on the rights to protect the physically challenged persons, make available resources needed by the physically challenged and those responsible for his/her care. The state parties have done little or nothing to improve the wellbeing of this group of persons in our society which has now been worsen as they face and live in more deplorable conditions as a result of the crisis and the pandemic. Facilities in our institutions are not user friendly for persons with disability thus making it difficult to exercise and enjoy their rights like every other child.
We can all attest how vulnerable the crisis has left our children and we can clearly see the untold suffering children are experiencing.
The elimination or fight against child labour should be a global fight and not a ‘one man’s affair’ as our children of today will make a better and sustainable tomorrow if they are being given the chance to exercise their rights.
How do we seek to have a sustainable society when we can’t invest on our children and give them the chance to exercise their rights and exploit their potentials? Goal 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) states: “Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and ensure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.” We thereby call on all parties involved to get into the fight against child labour, involve them in policies, programmes and actions that will help curb child labour. If we all seek to fight and eliminate child labour, then we have to “Act Now: End Child Labour!”
By Viole Nyebe
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