Challenges to children’s rights: Experiences from Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, there have been significant legislative frameworks in order to protect the rights of children and reduce their vulnerability. However, many of the relevant child right instruments have not yet been implemented to a satisfying degree. The aim of this article is to understand the challenges that impede the effectiveness of child rights system from children’s perspective. The empirical data upon which the author draws was gathered through repeated periods of qualitative fieldwork carried out in 2014/2015 with 24 children in the town of Dilla in Gedeo, southern Ethiopia. Parents, legal experts, police officers, and social workers also participated in the study. The author used informal dialogue, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions to obtain the empirical data. This study has also benefited from various secondary sources. As the study shows, negative social construct of children, culturally embedded decisions and practices, poverty and deprivation, gaps in legislative frameworks, lack of resources, coordination, and commitment among responsible actors are identified as major challenges that impede the enforcement of child rights system. Thus, it is necessary to adopt holistic approach and deal with the broader structural and social barriers that denied children what they deserve in so many ways.

Introduction

Improving the well-being and welfare of children has long been a cause of great concern worldwide. Beyond sheer survival, children have a right to thrive, develop to their full potential, and live in a sustainable world (Chan, 2013). There are good reasons for this. Endeavors to improve the welfare of children can bring about significant positive changes in their present lives. They are also likely to improve the chances that children will grow into adults who are physically and mentally capable of making positive contributions to economic and social development. Childhood experience is crucial to the adults that we become, and enhancing the position of children is intrinsically linked with a nation’s future prospects broader process of developing societies (Boyden and Dercon, 2012). In the global south where a good part of the population is under 18, both the short- and long-term socio-economic status of their citizens may rely considerably on child-targeted initiatives. As Rees et al. (2010) rightly indicated, to invest in a child is to invest in our common future. Investing in child welfare is not only a moral imperative but also a logical and economically sound investment strategy (Boyden and Dercon, 2012).

Rights are based on deep-rooted understandings of how individuals should live together in a society, so that everyone is treated fairly and with respect and responsibility (see Twum-Danso, 2009). It has been accepted that children are entitled to have their needs fulfilled. In other words, children have rights. Children’s rights are about treating children with equality, respect, and dignity to which they are entitled, not because they are the next-generation adults, but because they are human beings today (Panter-Brick, 2002), viewing children in the “here and now” (Tatek, 2008: 35), that is, viewing children in terms of their present. Promoting the best interests of children is not just a matter of providing children with the material support they deserve, but of listening to them and promoting their participation. According to Panter-Brick (2002), promoting the best interests of children is about going beyond highlighting the needs of children to defending their rights as citizens. Liebel (2004) demands that we need to rethink our ideas on children and treat them as subjects of rights rather than as mere objects of care and protection. This discussion speaks to the idea that children are people with their own rights.

Children are one of the vulnerable groups in any society. There are multiple of factors that prevent children from enjoying their human rights. Tackling these factors are fundamental human rights issues and key priorities for actors working in the area. Children remain vulnerable to poverty, poor housing, inadequate health care, poor nutrition, unsafe water, and various forms of ill treatments including violence and discrimination. They are also left voiceless and powerless (Daniel, 2015; Kefyalew, 1996; Tatek, 2008). This powerlessness leaves them even more vulnerable to further abuse and neglect. Due to their “vulnerability,” children are entitled to protection and adults have responsibilities to ensure their safety and well-being (Ekundayo, 2015). Besides, the Convention spells out children’s status as holders of rights. The metaphorical importance of the Convention is well recognized. However, we should not forget the challenges the child right agenda is facing. Based on child-focused qualitative research, the author argues that though much progress has been made, with positive examples of legislation, policy, and practice to protect the rights of children and reduce their vulnerability, it remains the case that for many children in Ethiopia, the right to life, survival, and development remains unrealized. This article tries to shed light on the challenges that impede the effective implementation of child rights system based on an in-depth case study of children in the town of Dilla, Southern Ethiopia.

The article is structured as follows. First, the research methodology and fieldwork context will be briefly outlined. This is accompanied by presentation and discussion of empirical findings focusing on the major challenges that impede the enforcement of child right system. Finally, the article highlights the implications of the research for implementation of children’s rights in ways that empowers children and improves their well-being.

Methodology

Different ways in which children can be engaged in the research process have been developed and applied in childhood studies. Participatory research methods have increasingly well established (Abebe, 2009). Children are recognized as informants and collaborators in research (Kjørholt, 2005). Research into the lives of children should be research with children; to gain understanding about the children’s lives based on their articulation of their own realities. The attitude “children should be seen, not heard,” which (Kefyalew, 1996) calls “adultist” perspective is now confronted by the growing demand for research that gives more attention to the voices of children. The best source of information on children’s daily lives is the children themselves. Children have rich knowledge to offer and rich experience to share (Daniel, 2015). Approach to study of childhood should open up conceptual space in which “speaking” needs to ensure that the voices and views of children are heard. “Giving voice to children is not simply a matter of letting children to speak; it is also a matter of looking into the social world that children’s perspective can provide” (Ennew and Plateau, 2004: 34). Children’s perspective is a matter of taking the views of children and placing those “views” into context (Tatek, 2008). In short, children’s perspective is a matter of “putting children in the picture” (Ennew and Plateau, 2004: 34–35).

As a researcher, the author had the opportunity to carry out researches into the lives of children. These researches opened up many issues for further investigation and here, the author specifically examines the challenges to children’s rights. The empirical data upon which the author draws was gathered through repeated periods of qualitative fieldwork carried out in 2014/2015 in the town of Dilla in Gedeo, southern Ethiopia. The author used child perspective as analytical tools, recognizing children as informants of research (Christensen and James, 2000), that is, considering them as participants in the research as well as providing its content by focusing specifically on their lives (Tatek, 2008). A total of 24 children (aged 10–17 years) were purposively selected based on age and sex. Being inspired by ethnography, the author used different research methods. The methods gave the children more direct say in the collection of data. These methods included dialogue (to facilitate children’s involvement in the research), in-depth interviews (conducted with 24 children to explore their knowledge and experiences related to child rights and the reasons for its violation), and focus group discussions (held with parents, legal experts, police officers, and social workers (two with each) to understand their experiences regarding the application of child rights and challenges that impede the implementation of it). This study has also benefited from various secondary sources such as books, policy documents, declarations, proclamations, and different published and unpublished reports. Following a case study research tradition, the author analyzed perspectives and insights form the empirical data thematically and presented them contextually (Daniel, 2015).

During the fieldwork, the author went to a great length to be child friendly (Okoli, 2009). He realized that gaining participants’ trust was the most important part for a successful fieldwork. In an attempt to build rapport, the author familiarized himself with the children whose views and experiences were needed for the research. This was achieved by walking around with the children, sharing food and jokes (see Tatek, 2008, for more on building rapport with children). The familiarization visits and observations helped to establish the author’s presence and win and retain children’s confidence throughout the duration of his fieldwork. The fact that the author is an Ethiopian made his acceptance by the children easier. As Cohen et al. (2000) indicated, informed consent is the bedrock of ethical procedure. Accordingly, consent was sought from the children and adult participants. Interviews and discussions with research participants were conducted in places where they feel safe and comfortable. During the fieldwork, the author assured research participants that their interviews would be used strictly for academic purposes and explained to them that he would not reveal anything about what they said to anybody they know who may have an interest to know what they said. The research participants offer their knowledge and share their experiences in a way that might bring positive changes. In what follows the author presents the empirical findings focusing on the major challenges that impede the enforcement of child right system.

Challenges to implement child rights

Social construct of children

UNCRC states that “a child is anyone who is under 18 years of age.” It recognizes “childhood” as a period of nurturing, care, play, and learning in the family, school, and community. Nonetheless, this is not the way many of us would understand “a child” and “childhood.” What “a child” means and how “childhood” is lived and experienced is obviously different from context to context. Childhood studies remind us that the way “a child” and “childhood” is understood depends, to a very large extent, on the structural factors in a society such as tradition, community ideas, behavior, physical development, and the conditions a child is living in (Daniel, 2015; Tatek, 2008). In many cultures in Ethiopia, as one parent put it,

unless they are given permission, children are not allowed to speak the presence of adults. Children must show respect to their parents and the elderly. If children openly oppose adult view or question adult opinion, they are considered “bad mannered” and it is a source of embarrassment to the family.

Children cannot say no to adult instructions. Ethiopian culture dictates strong work ethics from an early age (Daniel, 2015) and children assume many adult-like responsibilities (Tatek, 2008). As one child indicated,

To adults, children have rights means they give no attention to their responsibilities. Parents want to decide on the rights children deserve. This is the outcome of the negative attitude in the society regarding the “dependency” of children. Such attitudes of the society continue to derail the ambition of ensuring our rights. I think it is necessary to change the outlooks of our society since society’s outlooks shapes what is seen at every level. It is necessary to teach our society more and let them know what rights means for us.

The ways we think and the associated attitudes we hold influence how we treat children. Childhood, as Tatek (2008: 34) argues, “represents a notion that is rooted in the concept of socialization.” In socialization perspective, children are viewed as “becomings” (Horton and Kraftl, 2005: 135) and families as their primary socializing agents. Accordingly, in Ethiopia, children are not conceived as independent individuals with separate rights. In the eyes of parents, children are simply embedded in the larger family structure. To the children in this study, parents are a reference point for the direction they take in life. Parents have rights to determine what children can and cannot do as part of their socialization process toward adulthood, since children are viewed as “incompetent and incomplete objects in the making” (Horton and Kraftl, 2005: 135). Because of this view, adults take responsibilities to ensure children’s safety in their own way. The fact that “children are not yet grown up” is still used as a justification by many parents to take control over the needs and interest of children (Ekundayo, 2015). Poluha (2004) relates these relations to that of patron-client; relations that socialize children into the “hierarchy trap.”

Traditional laws and practices

Often, as Fasil and Rakeb (2014) indicated, “traditional laws, decisions and practices contradict with the rights of children.” There are discriminatory attitudes and practices in many parts of Ethiopia under the guise of what one child referred as “respect for cultural norms or differences.” The legislative measures fail to clearly stipulate that traditional and religious customs and practices should be reviewed to identify those customs and practices and uncover attitudes and behaviors to be promoted because they are positive to children’s rights (see Hollos, 2002), and those that should be modified and even banned because they (re)produce structures that denied children basic rights in so many ways (see Fasil and Rakeb, 2014). This oversight, as the children commonly indicated, “continue to exclude children in cultures and traditions that do not respect their best interests.” As one community police officer indicated, “little has been done to change traditional cultures that negatively influence our attitudes towards children, and how we treat them.” One child explained the problem in this way:

We can be vulnerable to rape, child labor and other forms of abuse because of our living environment. Families, particularly in rural areas, prioritize sending boys to schools due to unequal cultural value they have for children. Respectfulness is highly valued quality in children. We are supposed to be “shy,” and are not expected to express our feelings or speak in public. In our community, children who oppose adult ideas are considered disrespectful. Our culture of silence exposes us to sexual abuse, neglect and other forms of hardships.

Because of their childhood, children are vulnerable and thus affected more than adults. The above quotation highlights how traditional cultures used to justify practices harmful to children. As evidence from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia shows (Pells and Morrow, 2018), violence in the lives of many children is pervasive and normalized. As one social worker indicated, harmful practices based on traditional cultures covers many violations of children’s rights. Degrading forms of disciplining, female genital mutilation, labor exploitation, sexual abuse, bullying, and harassment against children who are perceived as having transgressed cultural rules or norms, the denial of schooling to girls, and unfair treatment of children from poor families can be said to be harmful practices perpetrated against children but continue to be disregarded by many traditional cultures. We accept that these harmful practices may sometimes seem uninformed but as Zewdineh (2008) indicates, “they are systematic violations of children’s rights”; violations either accepted as being part of “cultural tradition” or disguised as being part of “childhood.”

Poverty and deprivation

In Ethiopian society, which in many respects could be regarded as communal, the responsibility for children is not limited entirely to the nuclear family unit. Extended family systems normally serve as a comfort zone for all members of the family. Put differently, children were a shared responsibility. However, this “traditional social safety net system” (Daniel, 2015: 95) has increasingly overstretched by the strain of poverty (Tatek, 2008). Poverty has placed severe strains on families coping capacity (Abebe, 2007), restricting their ability to share material resources of care and support. Harsh economic condition and changes in familial settings have given way to a situation where parents are now to a large extent responsible for the care of children with adverse effect on quality of care children received (Daniel, 2015). As most of the respondents in this study felt, “economic deprivation plays a role in child abuse and neglect such as child labor, early marriage, inadequate care and sexual exploitation.” This speaks to the idea that children living in the shadow of poverty experience “multiple jeopardies.” As one child pointed out,

Children carry out various activities to help out their poor families. Contributions children make to the well-being of their families is highly valued and parents consider it as children’s social responsibility. But, poverty continues to produce more pressures on children and this condition put children at risk of abuse and exploitation. For example, poverty drives poor families to regard girls as potential sources of household wealth [bride’s family receives or early access to land in the face of scarcity of land] without paying much attention to the life of sexual exploitation, physical violence or inadequate care girls will be subjected.

Children, like adults, do not escape the structural constraints of poverty (Smorholm, 2016). Poverty, population displacement, and other socio-economic crisis are still among the causes of childhood deprivations in Ethiopia (Abebe, 2008). As one social worker put it, “in Ethiopia, despite renewed attempts to achieve economic growth, a major breakthrough has not been realized to mitigate the effects of poverty.” Household poverty has persisted, and more and more children are born into poor families, thereby increasing the likelihood that poverty is passed from one generation to another or mounting children’s transitions into poverty. As focus group discussions disclose, poverty is explicitly noticed in the condition of children who suffer from multiple deprivations and are exposed to various forms of adversities such as violence and discrimination that endangers their proper living conditions. Although the situation of children has attracted the attention of public policies, poverty continues to haunt children’s survival. It continues to be a feature of life in the country affecting the ability of society at all levels to fulfill its obligations to children (Daniel, 2015).

Gap in legislation

The fact that children are still developing means they are especially vulnerable to various forms of adversities. The degree of vulnerability for children obviously varies according to the circumstances they live in. In Ethiopia, children are at a great disadvantage experiencing adversity, risks, and challenges. Cognizant of this fact, Ethiopia has adopted child right instruments and taken various measures to provide children appropriate protection to ensure their safety and well-being. But, the country is still far from an ideal situation in terms of respect for children’s rights. Whether the child right instruments could apply in domestic courts before it is promulgated in a Negarit Gazeta is still a major concern among the legal community. Child rights to exist as legal entitlements, they have to be publicized in a Negarit Gazeta (official law gazette) which is not done to date. Consequently, as one legal expert observes, “child rights instruments do not so much serve as a direct source of legal rights and obligations as needed.” As one child indicated,

There is still limited room for the society to understand the provisions of the convention on the rights of the child and apply them. I think children should be empowered. They should be equipped with information related to policies and legal frameworks put or to be put in place to protect them from abuse, neglect and other various forms of ill-treatments. As to me, it is necessary to let us know our rights. If we are aware of our rights, we can claim them. But, there is a clear gap in these areas.

In Ethiopia, all laws of the Federal Government shall be published in the Federal Negarit Gazeta (Federal Negarit Gazeta Establishment Proclamation No. 3 of 1995) and under section 2(3) it states that all federal or regional legislative, executive, and judicial organs, as well as any natural or juristic person, shall take judicial notice of laws published in this Gazeta. This speaks to the idea that publication is a precondition for any law to regulate the conduct of the government and the people as well as for the courts to take judicial notice of it. However, the content of child rights documents is not available in domestic publications and as Fasil and Rakeb (2014) indicated, there is no system by which the judiciary can access these documents. This is a potential source of misunderstanding during application and to some extent neutralizes the effect of the law (Girmachew and Yonas, 2014). Besides, the country does not take any action with respect to the 2000 Optional Protocols on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography and on the involvement of children in armed conflict (Tadesse, 2013; Zewdineh, 2008). This indicates that much need to be done in terms of legislative frameworks and advocacy in order to improve the situation of children and reduce their vulnerability (Daniel, 2015).

Limited coordination among actors

Ethiopia has taken measures to guide the work of various actors dealing with the rights of children. The legislative mandate to coordinate the implementation of child rights lies with the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs. However, some child rights issues also falls within core mandate of ministries responsible for social sector such as justice, education, health, and labor affairs. In addition, administration structure and various “thematically focused” units have been put in place (Tadesse, 2013). It is a great achievement by itself, but as Fasil and Rakeb (2014) observed, child right instruments cannot function in a vacuum. To a legal expert in this study, “enforcement requires availability of adequate resources, and existence of efficient and effective institutions.” One community police officer also spoke about the resource problem and counted it a constraint to the continuity of the promotion work. One child put his observation in the following way:

Various organs involve in law enforcement. But, these organs are not doing as expected. There is coordination problem which in itself impede flows of information. There is no culture of hearing our voices, especially voices of children who are in difficult situation. As a result, we have little impact on frameworks proposed for action. Clearly, resource scarcity is a problem. These problems require careful attention and need to be addressed to realize our rights and bring meaningful change in our wellbeing. Otherwise child rights will just remain in writing.

Declarations can set standards and encourage compliance, but they need to be followed up. One of the impediments to effective implementation of child right norms and standards is the lack of serious commitment by the responsible government offices at all levels to coordinate activities and follow up the implementation. As one child noted, “there is considerable overlap of efforts by different actors working in the area of child rights.” As a community police officer remarked, “duplication is derailing the task and hence there is an urgent need for a law that sets up a system that enables the co-ordination of the tasks carried out by each organ.” The point is reiterated by a legal expert: “there are some organs which intrude into a domain that legally belongs to another organ.” These organs have no clear mandates as to their tasks thereby creating what a legal expert referred to as “duplication of efforts.” Duplication and the concomitant disputes potentially distract the attention of the concerned organs from their core mission (see Zewdineh, 2008) and simply end up as wastage of public resource.

Discussion

The focus on child rights is not specific to Ethiopia. It has been taken as a development agenda worldwide. Understanding child rights and the extent to which legislative and administrative measures have been taken at the national levels to make these rights a reality is sensible and, indeed, vital (Fasil and Rakeb, 2014). The argument here is that our attention foregrounding only on the vision of child rights detracts from the complex local contexts that inhabit the realization of these rights. This is problematic not only because it contributes to the continued “abstracting” of child right systems in Ethiopia but also because it limits our understanding of the challenges to children’s rights explored by empirical studies. Plainly, child rights are well recognized, but the problem resides in the way they are, or are not, put into practice. Rights-based approach, I argue, pays limited attention to the complex local contexts that make implementation of child rights still challenging (see Boyden and Dercon, 2012). After decades time when very little has been achieved, it is convincing to ask if expectations will ever be fulfilled.

Policy makers believe in child rights. However, these rights are not a reality. Although child rights approach is dominant in childhood discourses, the current state of knowledge gives us no firm basis for implementing the provisions of the UNCRC. In Ethiopia, the issues of child rights are mostly constructed as issues of legal, rather than social and cultural concern (Daniel, 2015). Consequently, we still run the risk of finding children’s rights being concerned only with the logical application of laws. But, it is problematic. Realization of child rights is more than a matter of simple adherence to orderly rules (Pankhurst et al., 2016). As this study highlights, child rights are influenced by a larger social system. In other words, child rights as a closed system rarely exist. Social, economic, cultural, and political contexts are all source of moral rules that frame the multiple domains of children’s lives. Such perspective can be a way of questioning supposed “universalist” views of child rights and paying attention to complex local contexts and embodied practices. In any society, local contexts apply, and all subjects are integrated into them. Thus, realizing child rights needs considering the social, economic, cultural, and political contexts in which they are located.

Conclusion

As this study has shown, it is imperative to effectively implement the child right instruments (laws and agreements) which Ethiopia has already agreed on and ratified. Despite national laws that conform to the UNCRC, enforcement is the determining factor in whether or not children’s rights are protected. Often the obstacles relate to the difficulty of dealing with the underlying structural barriers to the rights of children (Boyden and Dercon, 2012). No doubt, tackling poverty that (re)produces neglect and abuse into structures that value children is a promising approach for reducing vulnerability of children. But, it is also necessary to view children in terms of obligations to respect their rights. It means respecting children’s rights is also about shaping societal norms, customs, and traditions that denied children what they deserve in so many ways. Enforcement of child right systems entails availability of sufficient resources and existence of effective institutions (Daniel, 2015; Fasil and Rakeb, 2014), and it is the responsibility of the state, organizations, and individuals—each member of society—to ensure these conditions are fulfilled.