HIV/AIDS

Children's Rights in the Context of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa

Abstract

Children in Southern Africa are dwelling under farthest, tough attenuating components because of the disperse of HIV/AIDS. Protecting and enhancing the privileges of young children can be considered as an buying into in the future. The values recognised in the World Fit for Children article from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, inside the context of HIV/AIDS, were utilised as a theoretical structure for a study undertook in one of the provinces of South Africa. A review was undertook as a collaborative study task to chart out critical tendencies considering the fulfillment of children's privileges, patterns, and organisations of services accessible and the identification of capability gaps. Right holders and obligation bearers were consulted, locality reviews were undertook, and area facts were presented to work out data. Recommendations were made to lift the perception of children's privileges and to mobilize the community into action. To recognize children's privileges, focus should be put on personal survival, development, and protection. Duty bearers should identify and accept their responsibilities to set up, help, organise, and/or command designs of activity to address the devastating penalties of HIV/AIDS. Children should be empowered with information, abilities, and perception to enlist in and assertion their rights.Introduction

Emphasis on the rights of children has gained momentum during the past decade, especially since the International Conference on Population and Development conducted in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994. This conference concluded with a plan of action that indicated how the rights of children, especially girls, in developing settings, needed to be protected.

In Africa, there is growing public concern about the situation of children who are living under extreme, difficult circumstances due the spread of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses and deaths (UNICEF, 2002a). Given the estimated figure of 28,500,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the sub-Saharan region and the increasing level of social pathologies that include sexual assault, rape of infants and school-aged children, the increasing number of refugee children, malnutrition, poverty, the use of child labor, and juvenile delinquency, it becomes clear that protecting the rights of children involves every area of government policy, legislation, and service provision (UNAIDS, 2002b).

The main objectives of the study were to:

1) Identify and map out critical trends regarding the fulfillment of children's rights in a selected community

2) Map out the pattern of duty bearers as well as the structure for right-holders and identify capacity gaps

3) Identify and propose recommendations relevant to addressing the capacity gaps, raising awareness of the rights of children and the obligations of duty bearers in the process of realizing these rights, mobilizing communities into action, and facilitating a local plan of action to protect children's rights. Duty bearers were defined as adults with a responsibility to realize children's rights, such as teachers, parents, social workers, and others. Right holders were defined as children 18 years and younger.

Methodology

Design

The impact of socioeconomic, demographic, and sociocultural factors on services available for children in the area was surveyed, using both quantitative and qualitative research ...