EDITORIAL
At a special United Nations session scheduled to occur this September, heads of states and governments will take stock of what they have achieved since 1989 when the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force. It will be the largest U.N. gathering in a decade that will discuss the plight of children. But while the organisers of the meeting will be brimming with optimism, the African leaders present will be a source of embarrassment. Barring a miracle, most of the 53 African governments that will be represented at the New York meeting will not have put in place some of the key conditions that the convention called for ten years ago.
In February of this year, only 20 countries had ratified the 1999 International Labour Organisation's Convention 182 on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which the continental body, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) indicated should have been sanctioned by all member countries last year. There is little indication that more countries will sign on before September.
As if that is not enough, the delegations from West Africa will meet the rest of the world under a cloud of shame, having been tarred by the recent discovery of a ship carrying child slaves. This event leaves a sour taste in one s mouth and sends out the message that regional leaders are not at all serious about dealing with a trade that each year ruins the lives of more than 200,000 children.
But apathy about children s issues is not confined to West Africa. Kenya will arrive in New York without a national treaty on children. Come September, the Children s Bill 2001 that has been pending for the last six years will probably not even be given first reading in Kenya s Parliament. President Daniel arap Moi, who in 1996 gave a Christmas party for street children in Nairobi, will not convince anybody in New York that he has the welfare of children at heart as he claimed during the party. In 1996, he promised that his government would deal with the country s then 40,000 street children. He did nothing; the plight of the now 135,000 street children is a script from Dante Alighieri s Inferno.
Accustomed to paying lip service to some of the most important international agreements, African leaders might not, therefore, be ashamed by the sad status of the African child since they have made it their task to generate the conditions that make children vulnerable to exploitation. Suffering from humanitarian indifference, political narrow mindedness, and an obsession with looting national coffers, these rulers leave no doubt that the welfare of their people especially children, the leaders of tomorrow is not a priority. Such people cannot present a case for this continent, and it is a fact that concerned Africans will find it hard to convince the rest of the world that non-African causes are the reasons behind Africa s underdevelopment. In other words, Africa s representatives to the New York meeting are the wrong people, which the continent and the world can do without.
A small note to our readers
The June issue of Africanews will be posted two days later than usual. This is to allow for the inclusion of exclusive reporting of the situation in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan. Our correspondent, Stephen Amin, will be returning from the Nuba Mountains on the day that we usually go to press.
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