The Welfare And Protection Of Children In Uganda. A Critic Of The Children Act

ABSTRACT

... the child, due to the needs of his physical and mental development

requires particular care with regard to health, physical, mental, moral and

social development, and requires legal protection in conditions of freedom,

dignity and security.

Preamble to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the ChildParagraph

6

This quotation above shows clearly that children's rights deserve the same level of

attention in the human rights discourse like the rights of every other categories of

persons protected especially minority groups. Hence, it motivated this work on the

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the

Committee) mandated to ensure the promotion and protection of the rights of

children in Africa. The current state of affairs within and outside the work of the

Committee has begun to pose a threat to the rights enshrined in the African

Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in which many individuals, entities

and organisations are seeking ways to ensure a viable Committee with all the

necessary expertise to fulfil its mandate.

The purpose of this work is to appraise the mandate of the Committee, seek out the

loopholes and loose ends and propose positive and proactive ways in ensuring the fulfilment of the mandate of the Committee for an effective child rights promotion and protection in Africa.

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which complements the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, would then be working in accordance with the CRC's Preamble:

The child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, and

brought up in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity.

Preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - Paragraph 7