The African Children’s Charter @ 30: A distinction without a difference?

The African Children's Charter @ 30: A distinction without a difference?I would like to start with three recent concerning developments on children's rights in Africa that the media has highlighted.First, in Somalia the draft Sexual Offences Bill that allowed child marriage has ruffled feathers (UN News, 11 August 2020).In Cameroon, a video of soldiers executing two mothers and their children that went viral in 2018 almost came to a full circle when a military court conducted behind closed doors convicted four soldiers to a mere ten years' imprisonment (Human Rights Watch, 23 September 2020).In Nigeria too, the sentencing of a 13-year old boy for 10 years, 'in a Sharia court in Kano State in Northwest Nigeria after he was accused of using foul language toward Allah in an argument with a friend' (CNN, 16 September 2020) has drawn condemnation from organisations such as unicef.The less informed individual who saw these child rights news items could be forgiven for thinking that there is almost no child rights progress on the African continent.But this could not be further from the truth, especially as the year 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child ("African Children's Charter" or "Charter").In 1999, at the time of the coming into force of the African Children's Charter, Mugwanya offered a grim assessment of human rights in Africa when he proffered that, 'the world at large and Africa in particular, stands poised between the extremities of hope and despair' (1999: 39).In the past 30 years, however, very commendable progress has been, for example: in addressing infant and child mortality; reducing the number of preventable deaths; improving access to and quality of education; enacting child rights laws; combating violence against children; and providing for access to justice.In fact, during the same few weeks that the above three child rights violations were highlighted in the