International Child Rights Conference

Sharing best practice and policy on child protection, justice and participation

Realizing every child’s right to freedom from violence is a fundamental element of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Recent estimates show that at least one billion children are victims of violence every year. Violence against children in all its forms compromises all children’s rights and leaves not only long-lasting scars on children’s lives but also weakens social and economic progress.
In 2011, Zanzibar as one of the first countries in Africa to introduce a comprehensive children’s rights law. Zanzibar’s ‘Children’s Act’ was awarded the gold prize at our 2015 Future Policy Awards for its effective response to child abuse and violence and for its promotion and protection of child rights. Following up the awarding, the World Future Council is now organizing the International Child Rights Conference in November in Zanzibar, offering international attendees from all across Africa a platform to exchange best practice examples.

Aims of the conference:

• to offer insights from Zanzibar’s Child Protection System and the Children’s Act to policy makers and technical experts from other jurisdictions
• to exchange best practice examples from countries across Africa and internationally on topics such as child rights, participation, child justice, protection and positive discipline
• to provide a platform and learn from each other and to mutually improve policies, practices and impacts for the benefit of children and young people, particularly those that are vulnerable
• to strengthen synergies and networks for multi-stakeholder dialogue and promote the ongoing improvement of child rights laws and policies through cross-border learning.
• to identify opportunities, trends and success factors for policy reform and progress in the child rights arena

Context of the conference:

In the recent years, Zanzibar is increasingly working on the implementation of empowerment of children and women. Tanzania and its semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar was one of the first countries in Africa to undertake a national study on violence against children in 2009. In response to its findings, and to streamline national child rights legislation, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar introduced the comprehensive children’s rights law in 2011. To promote a conducive policy environment to address child protection in Zanzibar a National Plan of Action to end violence against women and children (NAPVAC) (2011-2015), a national campaign and a child justice reform process were also undertaken. A very recent (2017) National Plan of Action to end Violence Against Women and Children (2017-2022) has also been introduced. Zanzibar’s Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUZIII) stresses the importance of empowering women, protecting children, promoting gender euality and equity; all critical factors for Zanzibar’s economic and social transformation.

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