Family Affairs Minister Mitcy Larue’s message to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20 |20 November 2019

Minister Larue

‘A global pledge for every child, every right’

“The 30thanniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a unique opportunity to assess the status of child rights and take measures to strengthen awareness, understanding and the actual realisation of children’s rights in our country.

“Seychelles ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Since, the government has made great strides in ensuring that domestic legislations, policies and programmes embrace the convention to realise children’s rights.

“As we join the rest of the world to celebrate this milestone event, it is an opportune time to take stock of progress made up to now, acknowledge the existing gaps and adopt strategies to address those gaps to further strengthen children’s rights and to teach them to become responsible at a very young age.

“In the 30 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as a nation we can celebrate the many achievements in the various sectors based on the government’s philosophy of inclusion and leaving no one behind. We pride ourselves that government continues to apportion the biggest share of the national budget to the social sector especially health and education to benefit our children.

“The Early Childhood Care and Education Framework has introduced complementary services to give children a good start in life. Protection of our children and their well-being is of paramount importance. Child protection services are now well established under the lead of the Ministry of Family Affairs assuming the coordinating role to ensure protection and safety while the National Council for Children continues to discharge its pivotal advocacy role in promoting the Convention of the Rights of the Child and providing other psychological services. The ministry further recognises the complementary role of other ministries, faith based and civil society actors to ensure the progressive realisation of children’s rights in the country.

“Seychelles has maintained its record to periodically report on progress made to the UN committee responsible to monitor the implementation of the convention. The committee has always commended Seychelles on the initiatives undertaken to implement the convention and recognised the limitation for full compliance. Seychelles takes heed of the concluding observations of the UN committee and continues to work towards getting all stakeholders to recognise and understand that children are right holders and have the right to special protection.

“As we celebrate this momentous anniversary, we are cognizant of the need to align all our actions with other major international instruments that go hand in hand with the convention. It is imperative that as we realise the vision of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the convention is given due importance to ensure that no child is left behind by including their needs and aspirations in all strategies to achieve the said goals.

“Let us all continue to review relevant legislations and policies to address new challenges such as digitalisation and mass connectivity, multidimensional and inter-generational poverty, illegal substance use and abuse that has a profound impact on children’s rights and well-being. Children are our greatest assets. We owe it to them to include children’s participation in the development of innovative strategies designed to realise their rights and meet their specific and evolving needs.

“On this momentous occasion, we reaffirm our steadfast commitment to upholding and protecting the rights and principles enshrined within the convention, and pledge to take concrete action through time-bound steps to collectively achieve our goal of the full implementation.”