Panel on Childrens Rights and Expereinces of Governance in Africa

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) are key human right instruments that shape policies and programs for children in Africa. Rights discourses are infused in programs that address the living conditions of, among others, ‘children on the move’, ‘trafficked children’, ‘orphan and vulnerable children’, ‘street children’, ‘child beggars’ etc. Yet, intervention strategies for these children are met with complex challenges and dilemmas at the grassroots level. Rights-based approaches also have implications for children’s role and place in society. Through the UNCRC and ACRWC, the responsibility for the care and wellbeing of children has been re-scripted, with nation-states as the main duty bearers. Being part of the global children’s rights framework, African families face pressure from government and non-governmental institutions to uphold and exercise children’s individual rights. Yet, the capacities of families and communities to live up to the ideals contained in these documents are eroded by social, economic, political and environmental transformations as well as the inequalities reproduced by them. The paradigm of children’s rights further contradicts deeply held values about childhood as well as experiences that the needs and rights of children will be met through vertical state-child relationships, via practices of citizenship and accountability. This panel explores how the children’s rights agenda has epitomized intervention strategies for vulnerable children in diverse African settings; and discusses the implications for these children’s lived experiences within families, communities and beyond. How do children, families and communities encounter children’s rights and the governance of their everyday lives in Africa? We welcome both conceptual and empirical papers that discuss the implications of children’s rights framework for re-thinking questions of governance for and with children in Africa. PAPERS SESSION 1: CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA I – COLLECTIVE EXISTENCE AND RESILIENCE PATHWAYS PAPERS SESSION 2: CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA II – CONTESTING INTERNATIONAL NORMS?