Time to protect South Sudan’s children

Children in the state face many infringements of their rights, including working, early marriage and sexual assaults, according to a October 2015 survey conducted by the Child Protection Committee in Yei, supported by Plan International South Sudan.

“These children need support and a collective effort to help them,” said Lokule Santo Augustino, chairperson of the committee marking the international celebrations.

Leave us free so that we can grow in peace.

South Sudan has a number of laws safeguarding the rights of children, but victims often lack justice while abusers walk free. During the launch, children backed proper implementation of the laws and by-laws to bring justice, adding that continuous conflict would further abuse their rights. “We, the children of South Sudan, are calling for an end of children’s rights violations. Leave us free so that we can grow in peace,” Poni, a school girl, said in a poem entitled ‘The Cry of South Sudanese Children’.

Another child, Pita, said conflict and crisis have created “great fear to them”, as they live in uneasiness during the daytime and spend sleepless nights. “Hundreds of thousands children lost months of education in school,” said Eva, another school girl, referring to the South Sudanese displaced by the conflict which has been raging since mid December 2013.

The Yei Child Protection Committee developed the bylaws over four years in a bid to create a legal framework to halt offences against children. The laws include acts stipulating imprisonment for rapists of children and measures to stop children being recruited as child soldiers. “Any parent or person who shall be found forcing a child under 18 years into child soldiers commits an offence and upon conviction shall be sentenced to a term of ten years imprisonment or with fine or both,” part of the act warns.

Under South Sudan’s theme “stakeholders should work together to protect children during conflict and crisis”, the launching of the by-laws on the International Day of the African Child was held in Lasu Payam of Yei River State. Officials from government, nongovernmental organisations, chiefs, school children, youth, churches, women and the local residents attended.

Why can’t the rights of children too be respected.

A Member of the Anti Violence Club, Lillian Amani, said putting the laws and by-laws into work would protect the rights of the young generation. The Anti Violence Club provides children an interactive space in schools and enables them to report abuses. Amani blamed the incessant infringement of the rights of many children on the improper implementation of laws, saying they rarely turned into action and held abusers accountable. “I encourage that the by-laws should be implemented to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted according to the laws. Most times we are good at formulating laws, but we are poor at implementing it,” she said.

“Don’t we also think that children are also human? Why can’t the rights of children too be respected? Why is that there rights are violated and perpetrators are not prosecuted? Why is that laws are formulated about their rights and are not implemented.”

The Child Protection Advisor of Plan International South Sudan, Angelina Alal, said most of the children abuses in the community are not reported for fear of stigma. For example, she pointed out a case in Rokon of Juba County where parents resorted to resolving an early pregnancy case at home to get high dowry rather than taking the case to a court for justice. Alal said some parents believed that once the case reached the authority, justice would be slow and their dowry may be jeopardised. “Child abuse is a sensitive issue and reporting it is very difficult because most of the perpetrators are people who are known to the children. It might be a family member and that is why people end up hiding in the community,” she said.

Meanwhile, corruption also served to shield violators of child rights, observed Joseph Brown Lomose, the Paramount Chief of Yei River. He described a case where the perpetrator was taken to the police but later the parents came and decided to request solving the matter at home, denying the victim access to justice. With the parents now deciding the case at home, Brown said the prison officials and police both demanded pay before releasing him. “Sometimes, it is us the parents who make the law very light. This is the challenge that we as chiefs face, we arrest and take to prison, but when it is money involved it is hard,” he said.

There is nothing else, we need only peace.

Jackson Abugo Gama, the Political Affairs Advisor in Yei River State, warned that the first step for South Sudan’s children was to halt conflict, adding that otherwise they faced a gloomy future. He added that high illiteracy and ignorance about the laws have prompted many people to shy away from defending their own rights. “We have laws, we have by-laws. There are laws, but implementation is not there. What do we do?” he asked. “For children to have their rights we need peace. There is nothing else, we need only peace. The war of three years has killed so many children.”