Bujumbura, Burundi:
The East African Community (EAC) is mooting a move to set up a regional framework aimed to promote children’s rights in the EAC bloc.
East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) MP Martin Nduwimana said this on the sidelines of the three-day first ever EAC child rights conference that ended in the Burundian capital Bujumbura on Monday.
The conference, whose theme was “Addressing the issues that negatively impact on the realization of child rights in the EAC”, attracted at least 150 participants from the five EAC countries including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
“On top of national legal frameworks for children’s rights promotion, participants to this conference have recommended the creation of a regional legal framework to promote children’s rights in the EAC region,” said MP Martin Nduwimana at the EALA, EAC’s legislative arm.
According to Nduwimana, challenges that children are facing in the EAC include difficulty in accessing education and health services.
“This conference helped us have stock of challenges that children are facing in our region. We have for example learned that about 20,000 children don’t have access to education in Tanzania,” said Nduwimana.
The East African parliamentarian said that among other things, participants recommended the creation of a regional framework aimed to promote children’s rights in the EAC.
Nduwimana said: “This is a serious concern which was raised a couple of years ago. The issue is being discussed and a legal framework of the children’s parliament in Burundi will soon be set up as the framework already exists in the other EAC countries.
“He said that children are very important in the life of a country as they are the “future” of their countries. (Xinhua)
