Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Honorable Members of the Committee, State Party representatives, civil society organizations:
Human Rights Watch is honored to address the African Committee of Experts at its 44th Ordinary Session.
As the AU Year of Education enters its final stages and the African Union (AU) prepares to review its Continental Education Strategy, we underscore the Committee's key role in providing states parties with specific guidance on ensuring a rights-respecting implementation of their education obligations, including calling on states to provide access to free, quality early childhood through secondary education.
We draw the Committee's attention to the loss of education and denial of rights experienced by hundreds of thousands of girls who continue to be discriminated against or excluded from schools because they are pregnant, parenting or married, including in states parties that will be reviewed at this session. As a follow-up to its Continental Study on Teenage Pregnancy, and seizing the momentum generated by the AU's "Africa Educates Her" campaign, we encourage the Committee to consider issuing Guidelines that outline States' human rights obligations to protect and fulfil the right to education of students who are pregnant or parenting.
Ahead of the Committee's review of Zambia, we wish to draw its attention to the situation faced by tens of thousands of children who are suffering lead poisoning due to severe lead pollution from a former mine in the city of Kabwe, one of the world's worst pollution hotspots. Children face serious lifelong health impacts and significant learning barriers and disabilities, often without accommodations. The government of Zambia should be called upon to develop and implement a comprehensive remediation program for Kabwe's former lead mine in close consultation with experts, the affected community, civil society, and relevant government ministries and agencies.
Honorable chair, members of the Committee:
We express our deep concern at the severe impact of the ongoing armed conflict and widespread atrocities and grave violations against children in Sudan, and the dire humanitarian situation faced by thousands of refugee children in Chad.
In April, we briefed this Committee on the grave violations perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias predominantly against ethnic Massalit and other non-Arab children in the context of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in El Geneina, West Darfur. These violations amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In July, Human Rights Watch found evidence of conflict-related sexual violence against girls in Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman, which were largely under RSF control. Girls have been seized from their homes or on the streets and raped, detained or confined in facilities that RSF forces occupy. Some girls are forced into child marriages. Ongoing aid obstruction and repeated attacks on healthcare facilities by the warring parties is hampering survivors' access to care, including emergency contraception, post-exposure prophylaxis, abortion and psychosocial support.
We urge the Committee to work with other AU institutions to take administrative and other appropriate measures to create a civilian protection plan that responds to children's needs and rights. We also continue to urge the Committee to issue an urgent appeal to all parties involved in the conflict in Sudan that condemns war crimes and other human rights abuses against children, including sexual violence; to protect children's access to humanitarian assistance; and to comply with international humanitarian law and protections embedded in all African and international human rights law.
Thank you.
