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Booklet on children’s rights and responsibilities launched |29 May 2015

Are you aware what rights and responsibilities a child has? If not then a newly published booklet on the subject will help you understand better.

This new booklet is the culmination of a few years’ work by the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) and it was officially launched yesterday at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (Site), Mont Fleuri, during a conference on ‘Access to information’. These booklets have been sponsored by the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Trust Fund.

All crèches, primary and secondary school pupils and students in Seychelles will receive a copy of this booklet so that they are informed of their rights and responsibilities under the CRC.
Delegates at the conference on ‘Access to information’ were in the main children.

According to the principal secretary in the Ministry of Education, Merida Delcy, “the information in the booklet will not only provide children with factual knowledge but will also help determine their expression, social participation and identity. The importance of the right to information is highlighted in several articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and it is our duty as parents and educators to be honest about respecting this in light of the ‘evolving capacities’ of the child”.

“At the same time, it is also our duty, bearing in mind articles 13 and 18, to protect the child from information and material injurious to his or her well being,” said Mrs Delcy.
The PS however said that we should beware of denying access to information to the child using the excuse of over protection.

“True there are dangers that lurk out there, especially online but let us guide our children to surf the net responsibly and put in the necessary filters to protect them. Access to information and freedom of expression should start at home,” she said.

Present at the conference was the special rapporteur on freedom of expression and access to information in Africa, advocate Pansy Tlakula.
Addressing the children present, she said: “I grew up in a time where children were supposed to be seen but not heard. Children were not given the chance to defend themselves. Those days were good as the people were looking after us and taking good care of us. But now things have changed a lot. I am not generalising but those who are supposed to love and care for the children are the ones who abuse them. Nowadays we have child labour, early child marriage, child soldiers, child abuse, and child trafficking just to name a few. Our children also have peer pressure where drugs and child pregnancy come in. This booklet is welcomed and children need to know that they need to be disciplined with love and not through corporal punishment.”

Ms Tlakula also answered a few questions from the public and when asked about the removal of corporal punishment from school she said: “There are other ways that children can be disciplined. We abolish corporal punishment but the teachers do not get the assistance to find other ways to discipline the children. The parents also are absent as they are busy in building a career path. As a result the children rebel! Educators have to be equipped with alternatives and our curriculum also needs to be relooked to adapt to the change in the social environment.”

This event was attended by Designated Minister Vincent Meriton, the Minister for Education Macsuzy Mondon, the Seychelles Ambassador for Women and Children Dr Erna Athanasius, members of the NECCE Trust Fund and of the National Children Council, head teachers, teachers and students.

 

 

 

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