Innocence at stake: Protecting Uganda's children
28 January 2008
In recent years, Uganda's children have been let down by the systems that should be protecting them. Although their rights are recognised by law, many of the organisations that ought to be enforcing these rights are not up and running.
And, when childcare issues are raised at the village level, local councils are consistently weak at handling them. As a result, many of Uganda's children suffer abuse without anything being done about it.
A DFID-supported agency is working in Uganda to alert more
people to child abuse, and to ensure that action is
taken against it. The
African Network
for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) provides support to abused children, engages with
communities to increase awareness, and lobbies for changes in policy.
Delivering justice for Sarah
Image courtesy of Tom
Mugumya/ANPPCAN
Eleven-year-old Sarah is one child whose rights have been defended by ANPPCAN.
Her biological mother scratched, pinched and beat her. After Sarah's headmistress reported the abuse to ANPPCAN, the agency
helped to cover the costs of a medical examination.
Eventually, Sarah's mother was
arrested, charged and given a custodial sentence. Sarah now lives with maternal relatives.
As well as helping individual children, ANPPCAN tells their often harrowing
stories
to a wide audience, to make more people aware of the seriousness of the issue.
Making children's voices heard
Child abuse is a growing problem in Uganda. In the past, communities shared the responsibility for bringing up and protecting children. However, this traditional structure has gradually given way to the modern family unit, in which parents or guardians take care of the child's welfare and development. With the watchful eye of the community disappearing, many children have become vulnerable to mistreatment.
In March 2007 ANPPCAN helped bring the problem to
wider attention
through the 5th African Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Organised with the
International
Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), this brought together over
500 people
(including children) from around the world to
share expertise and discuss key topics, with a particular focus on how HIV and
AIDS impact upon child care. The conference was a big step forward in making the voices of abused children heard.
A better start in life
Although ANPPCAN is successfully publicising the crime and intervening in individual cases, it does face a number of challenges. Many children are still not enjoying the protection they deserve because of the project's limited national coverage - and the limited reach of similar children's rights programmes.
In addition, children are often put at risk by long-standing cultural attitudes which make them highly dependent on adults. DFID's support is important as ANPPCAN continues to address these challenges. Making more people aware that children's rights are human rights, and must always be respected, should go a long way to giving young Ugandans a better start in life.
Key facts
- ANPPCAN Uganda Chapter was established in 1992. It is a national membership non-governmental organization (NGO) that is registered with the NGO Board.
- DFID is providing £145,000 to ANPPCAN’s child rights awareness and policy advocacy project over three years (1 April 2006 – 28 February 2009).
- Most cases of abuse are not officially documented, but the extent of the problem can be gauged from the number of cases reported at health centres, to police, and through village elders and the local media. ANPPCAN research carried out in 2005 (looking at 7,844 cases) showed that girls were more likely to be victims than boys, and that the commonest forms of abuse were sexual abuse (80.6%) and neglect (11.2%).
- ANPPCAN Uganda Chapter provides services in: organisational development; child empowerment and service delivery; research and information; and policy advocacy.
- ANPPCAN has sought and obtained justice for 145 cases of child abuse in Uganda since 2006.
- Important laws relevant to the protection of the rights of children and other vulnerable groups are currently under review. These include the domestic relations bill and the law on sexual offences. Uganda has ratified a number of international conventions, for example those aimed at the elimination of child labour.
Links
- Case study: Saying “No” to domestic violence in Uganda
- UNICEF report on the state of the world's children launched - 22 January 2008
