Moving Beyond Baby Steps? An Examination of the Domestic Implementation of Concluding Observations from State Parties' Reports on the African Children's Charter

Abstract

Article 43 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child mandates state parties to report on their efforts made towards  implementing treaty provisions to the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC). The aim of this process is to  afford states an opportunity to internally assess their progress and to grant the ACERWC an opportunity to guide states in the  implementation of the treaty provisions through constructive dialogue during the state reporting process and through concluding  observations which states are required to implement. While much has been written about the value of the state reporting process, not  much has been said about the measures taken by states to implement the concluding observations from the state reporting process. The concluding observations offer a premise on which to advance a discourse on state implementation of the regional norms, given that they  emanate from an incisive reflection of state parties' reports by the ACERWC. This paper finds that while the ratification of the African  Children's Charter by the countries under consideration has led to normative and institutional changes in these countries, there are  pertinent challenges that need to be addressed in the realisation of children's rights in Africa. Through the concluding observations, this  paper examines the domestic implementation of children's rights in four African countries, namely: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and  Egypt.