TY - JOUR
T1 - A Dutiful Child
T2 - The Implications of Article 31 of the African Children's Charter
AU - Sloth-Nielsen, J.
AU - Mezmur, B. D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Professor of Law, University of the Western Cape. Doctoral Researcher, Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape. Email: [email protected]. The authors acknowledge that this work is based upon research supported by the National Research Foundation. This article is based on a paper prepared at the request of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and presented at its 10th ordinary meeting, Cairo, Egypt (October 2007). The authors would like to thank Albie Sachs J of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Professor Israel Leeman of the University of the Western Cape for comments made on the draft of this article. This garners support in Rousseau’s social contract which presupposed reciprocal rights and responsibilities and ‘‘assumed a considerable degree of communal coherence, and the existence of a social ethic of public responsibility, as part of the heritage of feudal society’’: AR Chapman ‘‘Reintegrating rights and responsibilities: Toward a new human rights paradigm’’ in KW Hunter and TC Mack (eds) International Rights and Responsibility for the Future (1996, Praeger) 3 at 9.
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008/10/1
Y1 - 2008/10/1
N2 - Each right has a corresponding duty. The African Children's Charter, under article 31, imposes a range of duties on children. Understandably, it could become contentious when an instrument on the rights and welfare of children expressly imposes duties on them. After setting the platform for discussion by highlighting international experiences and outlining the African concept of human rights, this article critically examines and attempts to clarify the precise meaning, content, conditions of compliance and application of those duties for children. By way of conclusion, it suggests that article 31 represents a valuable addition to the international human rights agenda, and that a purposeful interpretation of its constituent parts reveals that children should be required to play a role at family, community, national and continental levels, in accordance with their age and maturity as they grow up, as part and parcel of their heritage, empowerment and developing citizenship.
AB - Each right has a corresponding duty. The African Children's Charter, under article 31, imposes a range of duties on children. Understandably, it could become contentious when an instrument on the rights and welfare of children expressly imposes duties on them. After setting the platform for discussion by highlighting international experiences and outlining the African concept of human rights, this article critically examines and attempts to clarify the precise meaning, content, conditions of compliance and application of those duties for children. By way of conclusion, it suggests that article 31 represents a valuable addition to the international human rights agenda, and that a purposeful interpretation of its constituent parts reveals that children should be required to play a role at family, community, national and continental levels, in accordance with their age and maturity as they grow up, as part and parcel of their heritage, empowerment and developing citizenship.
KW - African Children's Charter
KW - African Union
KW - Human Rights System
KW - Cultural Rights
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=71949109798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0021855308000089
DO - 10.1017/S0021855308000089
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:71949109798
VL - 52
SP - 159
EP - 189
JO - Journal of African Law
JF - Journal of African Law
SN - 0021-8553
IS - 2
ER -