Zambia’s Commitment to Children’s Rights

This study focuses on six sectors where children's activities and programmes are visible - education, health, child affairs, social welfare, juvenile justice and recreation - and aims to provide information that will help government officials, policy-makers and civil society create better-informed programmes aimed at realising child rights.

According to the writer Zambia is facing an unprecedented crisis; job losses, severe food shortages and declining productivity have hit its citizens hard, especially the children. Rising HIV/AIDS rates have caused the number of homeless children to double in five years, the total of orphans to reach close to 100 000 and about 850 000 children to be forced into child labour.

The writer also states that Zambia is a signatory to a number of international declarations, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and the government has integrated their provisions into many of its programmes, signaling some progress in protecting the rights of the child.

The publication states that there is persistent underfunding during the period reviewed, weaknesses in the budgeting system, non-availability of data on child-related activities and the absence of child rights advocates suggest that budgeting for children' s rights is not a priority in political decision-making.