Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, University of Buea, course: Thesis, language: English, abstract: Children are human beings below the age of 18 years. They are unique and privileged since they are a vulnerable group of human beings. Children have human rights such as the right to education, health and a standard of living. These rights have to be respected and protected. The ideas that animated the children's right movement developed after the Second World War and the atrocities of the Holocaust. Children are often victims of bad treatment, negative social and cultural practices, sexual abuse and all forms of economic hazardous exploitation. This research exposes child labour as a major infringement of child rights that needs to be eliminated. Children engage in this activity out of desperation or are forced. Although they are coming from poor families, some of them have to work. Others are trafficked and forced to work in plantations while others are in commercial sexual exploitation. It therefore becomes necessary to investigate on activities violating children's rights and possible mechanisms. This work adopts the doctrinal research method which is appropriate in law. It therefore makes use of content analysis. International legal instruments protecting children's rights at the international level are discussed in relation to the various rights of children. In Cameroon, international legal instruments have precedence over national instruments protecting children's rights. These international legal instruments are ratified and applied with other national instruments protecting children's rights, yet, these rights are still violated. It is recommended that measures should be taken to intensify the fight against child labour in the area of education. Cameroon has a good legal framework for the protection of children's rights. However, child labour which is manifested in its various forms on

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, marked a turning point in the perception of children in international law and policy. Although it was hoped that the Convention would have a significant and positive impact on the lives of all children, this has not happened in many parts of the world. This edited volume, based on empirical research and Non-Governmental Organisation project data, explores the progress of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to a lesser extent, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in nine African countries in the 25 years since it was adopted by the UN General Assembly. The book considers the implementation of the Convention both in terms of policy and practice, and its impact on the lived experiences of children in societies across the continent, focusing on specific themes such as HIV/AIDS, education and disability, child labour, witchcraft stigmatisation, street children, parent-child relationships and child participation. The book breaks new ground in blending legal and social perspectives of the experiences of children, and identifies concrete ways forward for the better implementation of the CRC treaty in the various political contexts that exist in Africa.

In 2020, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) celebrates 30 years since its adoption. To date, 50 African States have ratified the ACRWC, and 28 have submitted the initial report, 12 have submitted both initial and periodic reports to the African Committee of Experts on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) on the implementation of the ACRWC and have received recommendations from the ACERWC. To ascertain the extent of children’s rights protection in Africa, the Centre for Human Rights was commissioned to undertake a study on the implementation of the ACRWC in 10 countries, namely: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan and Tanzania. In-country researchers were engaged to collect data using desk-based research to obtain information consisting of literature, documents and online sources that was then thematically analysed.

This collection is anchored in an African conception of children's rights and the law, and reflects contemporary discourses taking place in the region of the children's rights sphere. The majority of contributors are African and adopt an individual approach to their topic which reflects their first-hand experience. The book focuses on child rights issues which have particular resonance on the continent and the chapters span themes which are both broad and narrow, containing subject matter which is both theoretical and illuminated by practice. The book profiles recent developments and experiences in furthering children's legal rights in the African context, and distils from these future trends the specific role that the law can play in the African children's rights environment.

In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Livingstone declaration, and the UN Social Protection Floor, this book deals jointly with multidimensional child poverty and social protection in Central and Western Africa. It focuses both on extent and types of social protection coverage and assesses various child poverty trends in the region. More importantly, it looks at social protection to prevent and address the consequences of child poverty. Child poverty is distinct, conceptually, and different, quantitatively, from adult poverty. It requires its own independent measurement--otherwise half of the population in developing countries may be unaccounted for when assessing poverty reduction. This book posits that child poverty should be measured based on constitutive rights of poverty, using a multidimensional approach. The argument is supported by chapters actually applying and expanding this approach. In addition, the case is made that the underlying drivers of child poverty are inequality, lack of access to basic social services, and the presence of families without any type of social protection. As a result, the case for social protection in contributing to reduce and eliminate child protection and its consequences is made. Poverty reduction has been high on the international agenda since the start of the millennium. First as part of the MDGs and now included in the SDGs. However, in spite of a decline in the incidence of child poverty, the number of poor children is harder to reduce due to population dynamics. As a result, concomitant problems such as the increasing number of child brides, unregulated/dangerous migration, unabated child trafficking, etc. remain intractable. Understanding the root causes of child poverty and its characteristics in Central and Western Africa is fundamental to designing innovative ways to address it. It is also important to map the interventions, describe the practices, appreciate the challenges, recognize the limitations, and highlight the contributions of social protection and its role in dealing with child poverty. No practical policy recommendations can be devised without this knowledge.

A timely look at children's rights, the young activists who fought for them, and how readers can do the same by Amnesty International, Angelina Jolie, and Geraldine Van Bueren