United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child |29 January 2018

Stakeholders should work in collaboration to address weaknesses

It has been 28 years since Seychelles has ratified the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child and while it has made considerable progress in upholding the convention, the country faces various challenges in regards to the protection and wellness of our minors.

“All stakeholders should work in collaboration in order to address these weaknesses. It is not a feat we can accomplish post-haste but we are progressing in the right direction,” the Minister for Family Affairs, Jeanne Simeon stated.

This proclamation comes after Minister Simeon headed a delegation comprising the principal secretary for social affairs, Linda William-Melanie, and the senior legal officer for social affairs, Michelle Marguerite in order to defend Seychelles’ fifth and sixth combined progress reports earlier this month.

The latest report was submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Child in June 2016, detailing the country’s achievements and efforts in applying the principles of the convention.

 According to a press release from the Ministry of Family Affairs, during her opening statement to the committee, Minister Simeon highlighted Seychelles’ commitment in ensuring that all children in the country develop to their full potential, free from neglect and abuse.

She also gave prominence to the elements that threaten the progress made so far and these include the prevalence of absentee fathers, decrease in extended families and family support networks, and substance abuse.

It was during a press conference held on Friday that the delegation in turn revealed some of the commendations and concerns raised by the committee of experts.

Chief among the commendations were to the Seychelles’ social protection system and the mechanisms and legislations currently in place that safeguard minors, the steps being undertaken by the government to alleviate poverty, our free basic education and health care systems, the great strides made in early childhood care as well as the recent amendment to the Education Act that bans corporal punishment on school premises.

However, the committee also found that our challenges are numerous and include items such as the high abortion rate among our teenage girls, inclusive education to cater for all abilities, lack of professionals who work with children such as teachers, nurses and social workers and the deficiencies in the access to contraception for adolescents.

“The committee also wanted to be provided with how much the government is actually spending on children in the country through services such as education, health and social services but we did not have that data,” Minister Simeon revealed.

She stated that the data collection for the above should hopefully be eased with the newly introduced Programme Performance Based Budgeting system.

It is to be noted that most of the areas of deficiencies raised by the committee are not new, and have continuously been brought to the foreground during the recommendations for Seychelles’ first periodic progress report submitted in 2002 and the second, third and fourth combined report submitted in 2011.

Meanwhile, the committee is expected to provide its concluding observations in the coming weeks and it will necessitate a multi-sectorial endeavour to ensure Seychelles continues in its commitment to this international law.