| Human Rights Commission |
- The Commission has a full-time Commissioner responsible for children’s rights, who serves under the Children’s Rights Unit which is housed in the Commissioner’s Programme.
- Annually, the Commission budgets about 10 000 USD for programmatic work relating to children’s rights. This is less than 1% of the Commission’s annual budget.
- The SAHRC has obtained an affiliate status before the Committee and has mainly engaged with the ACERWC through the State Party Reporting mechanism.
- The Commission engages and collaborates with civil society organisations that work directly with children, or on children’s rights issues.
- The Commission also engages academic institutions such as the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria to ensure that vulnerable children are taken care of and their rights are duly enforced.
- SAHRC engages children occasionally, especially through the Children’s Parliament, and when they lodge complaints in the Commission’s childfriendly consultation rooms.
- In South Africa, the SAHRC engages with the Department of Social Development and South African Police Services (SAPS) to ensure the availability of social services for children in need. Additionally, the SAHRC convenes Section 11 Committees, which are advisory structures comprising experts from different disciplines and institutions who advise the Commission on matters and interventions related to children’s rights. In 2016, a Section 11 Committee meeting with a focus on the rights of children was convened on the 11 August 2016, to consider children’s rights and the right to access a basic education.
- The Commission is member of NANHRI and has engaged with NANHRI on a range of human rights issues, and more recently on children’s rights. NANHRI has recently established a committee on children’s rights, and the SAHRC is one of the inaugural members. The Commission looks forward to closer engagement with NANHRI on the issue of children’s rights. The Commission has received support from NANHRI in its work and has been part of several engagements hosted by NANHRI.
- The ACRWC has been promoted in various ways by SAHRC. It is one of the instruments that guides the Commission in its work on child rights, and it is also referred to in research and promotional material relating to children’s rights, including pamphlets and posters. The standards prevailing in the ACRWC are incorporated in the Commission’s monitoring frameworks on children’s rights. The SAHRC also uses each of its different arms (research, protection and promotion) to advance Africa’s Agenda 2040 for children. This is often done in collaboration with other stakeholders and CSOs.
- Moreover, the Children’s Rights Unit at the Commission seeks to protect, promote, and educate on children’s rights, and advocates for legislative and policy reform, creates awareness, and participates in advancing children rights both at the domestic, regional and international levels. Complaints to the Commission most often, highlight systemic challenges relating to access to basic services, race, disability, education, culture, language, citizenship, social support, and birth. The Commission also initiates hearings and investigations into social and political issues affecting children’s rights, such as the impact of protest related action on the right to access basic education. Other initiatives include a collaboration with the mining sector on children, and monitoring the delivery of learning materials to schools. In addition, the Commission is in the process of accelerating its operational accessibility to children through the implementation of child-friendly complaints procedures, trained staff; and child friendly materials and infrastructure.
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