The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. Children at birth take on the social and economic status of their parents and may be subject to abuse if special care and attention is not given them. They are minors who are socialized through education, formal or informal. At birth every child by nature can be said to be a social animal that can only develop its personality through social interaction. Through social interaction, children are taught their cultural values and duties. In the same way, through education, children can be taught their fundamental rights. Not only do children come to learn their rights through education, education also guarantees the enjoyment of those rights. 

Universal rights of children

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and came into force on 2 September of the following year. The rights that it describes include but not are not limited to the right to be protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members. It states that the best interest of children must always be the primary consideration when dealing with a child, and that children also have rights to protection and care for their well-being. They have the right to life and development, name, identity, parents and nationality, and also the right not to be separated from their parents. They further have right to freedom of expression, thought, religion and conscience, association, privacy and the right to information, among others.

There are similar provisions and guarantees and several other instruments such as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC-OPSC), the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC-OPAC), and Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, 1999.  The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child also contain similar provisions for protecting of children.

Violation of the rights of children

Despite numerous bills of rights of children enumerated above, the sad reality is that children continue to be enslaved and violated every day. According to the 2017 Global Estimates of Child Labor, there are 152 million children around the world engaged in child labour, and 73 million of them are in work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development. Also according to the report, 90 percent of all children in child labour are in Africa and the Asia and the Pacific region. In Africa, 20 percent of the continent's children are in child labour, while in the Asia and the Pacific region, 7 percent are in child labour.  Africa is said to have the largest numbers in child labour, and some 59 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are said to be involved in hazardous work. It is stated that more than one in 5 children in Africa are employed against their will in stone quarries, farms, and mines. Poverty remains the major determining factor. The 2017 Report on Trafficking in Persons also identifies the following as forms of modern day slavery involving children: child sex trafficking, forced child labour, and unlawful recruitment of child soldiers.

Education holds the key

The only way children of Africa can escape poverty is through education. Education is the key to unlocking the enjoyments of their rights for every child in Africa. Education has the potential not only to make children aware of their rights, but also to guarantee the enjoyment of those rights. Although a child may be born into a poor family, through education that child can acquire new values for life, and rise above that poverty. Education changes the social and cultural status as well as economic status of children. Through education, children can develop new personalities, reform attitudes and secure future carers. Education changes the political, religious and economic lives of individuals and families. The child's right to attaining well-being and full participation in society can be actualized through education.

Education made a dramatic difference in my own life. In speaking to the Fourteenth Annual Human Rights Summit held at the United Nations earlier this year, I shared my story on how education made a difference in my life.

I was the third born in a family of 9. My mother was a slave girl to a voodoo shrine and my father a desperate drunk. My eldest sister became blind at an early age, having suffered measles as a result of lack of education on the situation. My parents could not find a solution to her illness until it was too late. The only way I was able to survive the war of life was through education. I began to crave and search for knowledge. I began nursery school when I was 8 years old. As an elementary pupil, I had no option than to sell on the streets whiles pursuing education. I lived and endured the streets even when I was in senior high school for many years just to remain in school and gain knowledge. Apart from my usual street trade, I begged for money on the streets to supplement my daily earnings. (I must say though a difficult and risky venture, it was quite lucrative). Why? Because Knowledge is power. Knowledge made a difference in my life. Without education, life in Africa will continue to be but a dream from afar. I would not have become a human rights lawyer and activist, reaching out to the world, if not for knowledge.

Conclusion

When African children are educated, they will be able to fully enjoy their rights. Consequently, I invite the world to rally around Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In doing so, we will be invariably promoting the rights of children in the world and in Africa.

About the author

Francis-Xavier Sosu, is a Ghanaian lawyer and President for Youth for Human Rights Africa (www.yohra.org).