Chakwera commits to end child abuse
President Lazarus Chakwera said despite numerous challenges frustrating efforts to end violence against children, his administration is committed to end the vice which he described as reprehensible.
In his keynote address at the High-Level Conference on Violence against Children held virtually on Thursday, the President said government is determined to ensure Malawi leads by example in making the country a safe haven for children.
Chakwera said as part of eliminating violence against children, Malawi has made progress in ratifying various policies with reference to numerous frameworks and instruments for the protection of children.
He said: “In the case for Malawi, we ratified the UNCRC [United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child] and the African Charter some three decades ago and so we have been in pursuit of their implementation through our laws, policies and programming for some time.
“As a result of our steady domestication of these instruments to create a safe environment for children we have registered several achievements.”
Among others, Chakwera pointed out the amendment of chapter 4(23) of the country’s Constitution which provides basis for protecting children from exploitation or abuse, which in turn changed the definition of a child from a person under the age of 16 to 18 years.
The President said Malawi harmonised related laws where 26 laws were assessed to make promotion and protection of children’s rights more effective and that a new national children’s policy was developed which ensures an integrated framework for safeguarding rights and welfare of children in a coordinated approach.
Besides, Chakwera also said development of a National Child Protection Strategy is underway which will give primary prevention efforts a sense of focus and that government has also set up a national help line for reporting violence against children free of charge.
While pointing out that government has introduced one-stop centres providing medical, legal and social services to survivors of violence, he said the critical need is to domesticate instruments and farmeworks in a bid to protect children in respective countries.
In his address, Global Partnership to End Violence against Children executive director Howard Taylor said violence against children has escalated during the Covid-19 pandemic as over 1.5 billion children across the globe have been affected by school closures.
He said: “To end the vice, more especially in the current Covid-19 pandemic era, countries will have to demonstrate high level political leadership, involving children themselves and having reliable data to help in implementation of strategies.”
While stressing that ending violence against children requires collective efforts, Taylor also said civil society organisations (CSOs) have a role to play in ending the vice.
The conference was organised by the African Child Policy Forum (Acpf) and the African Partnership to End Violence Against Children (Apevac).
In 2018, a study by the Centre for Human Rights, Education and Advice and Assistance exposed a grim picture of the country’s efforts to curb rising cases of child abuse with figures showing a surge in the country.
