With regard to children, the post-apartheid ANC government has always prioritised children's rights and their wellbeing as part of our overall development plan. Our first President, Nelson Mandela, once said: "There is no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way it treats its children." Therefore, to give concrete expression to this vision, the ANC government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as one of the first international and regional instruments we ratified in 1995.