MP faults parliament for misplacing child right’s document

A Member of Parliament has criticised the legislature for misplacing the document on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) passed in 2014.

Simon Malual Deng, a former member of the special committee on human rights at the defunct Transitional National Legislative Assembly (NTLA), attributed the misplacement of the document to the change of speakers in the parliament.

“For example, if I have given you a document to work on and then you misplace it, who will be blamed? It is we the parliament,” Deng said.

He further argued, “If it is put under investigation to trace where the document is, the parliament will be held responsible.”

“If we gave it to the president, what is the procedure used for taking it to the president? Do we know now whether the document is in the office of the president or it is with the parliament?” he posed.

Much more needed

Deng made remarks on Thursday during a stakeholder and duty bearer’s forum on child rights issues in South Sudan.

He stressed that the situation has been exacerbated by the inability to obtain the document from where they have been stored because the parliament is being renovated.

According to Deng, there was no one directly tasked with taking care of such a document. This means that it cannot easily be traced. He added with conviction that the document is neither in parliament of at the office of the president.

“If you ask the legal advisor, he cannot tell you the truth. You come to the speaker, she is a new speaker. You go to any other computer, and the computers are not there. All the computers have been taken away.”

He suggested that the parliament go to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to get a new copy of the document and retable it before the current parliament for deliberation.

Peter Malir Biar, the deputy chairperson of the child rights coalition, expressed the desire of the committee of the coalition to continue engaging all stakeholders at all levels, to push for the ratification of the African Charter on the Rights of the Child. Biar said this is to provide a legal basis for the protection of the rights of children.

Malir emphasized that if ratified, the law will help to control social, cultural challenges that hinder women and girls in the country.

“So, we will be able to tackle the issues of early child marriages, gender-based violence, and we will be able to implement the laws in those chapters,” Malir stressed.

Mr. Michael Mabior, program manager for child rights advocacy at Save the Children, said South Sudan as a country that is part of the region was supposed to prioritise the ratification of the African Charter on the Rights of the Child.

He said it is an important legal framework for the protection of the child’s rights in the country.

“If South Sudan as a country that has been in existence for several years did not sign the document on the rights of the child, then it is very unfortunate because this is a document that is supposed to be implemented to promote the rights of children.” Mabior expressed.