Somali children still vulnerable despite signing of UN convention

A student at the Hamar Jajab School in Mogadishu holds a peace-themed comic book for children produced by UNSOM during the commemoration of Somalia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 January 2015. UN Photo/Ilyas Ahmed.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

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MOGADISHU — Many children still remain vulnerable despite Somali government sign UN Convention of on Rights of the Child (CRC).

The Horn of Africa nation became the world's 195 latest signature of the CRC on Tuesday, as thousands of Somali children are suffering from extreme violence including forcibly recruitment as child soldier and hard labor, such as severe cute malnutrition in IDP camps in country, according to experts.

Faadumo Hassan, a mother of five who is living in an IDP camp just a kilometer from the presidential villa, said many children living in the camp suffer from malnutrition, stomach pain, tuberculosis which sometimes cause death to their children.

"We are concerned about lack of health; we are not able to take our ailing children to health facilities. It costs too much. We feed our children on what we have begged from the people, that is our life," Hassan told Xinhua in Mogadishu.

The Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective central government in the past the 20 years where children were the worst affected by the crisis in the country.

Many children still live in IDP camps, Mogadishu roads have become homes for many who do have shelter and war orphaned children have no public care facilities or effective schools to go for free education.

Analysts say the ratification of this UN convention will make obligatory for the federal government to obey the intentional laws for the provision of child basic necessities giving protection to thousands of vulnerable children across the country.

The government of Somalia is adamant that the children's rights are one of the obligations to protect human rights.

Halimo Moalim Abiker, an analysts and human rights activist, said civil wars that Somalia has experienced more than two decades had made defenseless to thousands of children from the age of five to 18 years.

"Everywhere in the country the children are vulnerable, many of them have been orphaned by the wars, some have become drug addicts while others have joined in warring groups, I urge the government of Somalia to take the responsibility for looking after these future generation," Abiker told Xinhua.

The ratification means that Somali children now hold legally binding rights with the CRC providing a framework for the Government to promote and protect those rights.

The Somali government will have to bring its legislation, policy and practice into accordance with the standards in the CRC.

The ratification provides the basis for the system building and capacity development of the government.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of UN convention of child rights, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said his government will work with international partners for the protection of child and creation of a better and safe environment of the children.

"As president, my job is quite similar. It is my job not just to look after my own children, but all the children of Somalia," Mohamud said.

"It is my job - working with my government, and our international partners, like the UN – to make sure that your homes are safe and that your mother and father have everything they need to look after you," the president added.

"It is my job to make sure, that you have a school to go to and that your teachers can teach you well. It is my job to make sure that when you grow up, you can have a job and work to support your own families," he said.

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