Hon Speaker, Ministers and Deputy Ministers hon members, guests in the gallery, ladies and gentlemen, International Children's Day is celebrated on June each year; this year, nine days from the kick-off of the soccer World Cup. International Children's Day is said to have originated in Turkey in 1920 and later in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1925.
Children's Day was coincidentally one of two very important events that took place on June. The first was the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva; and at the same time the Chinese Consul-General in San Francisco gathered a number of Chinese orphans to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. Since both these events had the idea of child welfare at their core, June began to be celebrated as International Children's Day.
Section 28 of the Constitution establishes a range of rights that provide additional protection for children beyond the rights that apply to all South Africans. Children are by nature more vulnerable than adults due to their age. Children, therefore, require a set of rights relevant to their specific needs, over and above the constitutional rights they have in common with everyone else.
Primary health care, social support, school feeding schemes, early childhood development and education are among the many programmes that make up the prevention component of the state's plan for giving effect to protection from abuse and neglect.
The goal of child protection is to promote, protect and fulfil children's rights - protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence, as expressed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, human rights, humanitarian and refugee treaties and conventions, as well as national laws. As a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, these rights must be protected and upheld in order to ensure the protection and safety of all South African children. Despite our Constitution, which is renowned worldwide, and the legislative overhaul that safeguards children's rights, South Africa still has high levels of violence against women and children. According to the SA Police Service, approximately 50 000 children were victims of violent crimes between 2008 and 2009. The following key issues must be considered if child protection is to be ensured.
South Africa continues to deal with significant numbers of incidents of child abuse and neglect due to a range of reasons. The causes of abuse and neglect are due to myriad reasons and are complex in nature. The added constraints that render children more vulnerable to abuse and neglect are attributed, but not necessarily limited, to gender-based violence; domestic violence; a preponderance of sexual exploitation of children, including increased prevalence of child abuse images; the impact of the HIV and Aids pandemic; drug abuse; economic recession; poverty and high unemployment; all of which may negatively affect stress levels of parents and caregivers, leaving children more vulnerable to be abused and neglected.
It is also important to note that children fall victim to accidents and injuries - for example, poisoning and drowning - if not supervised and cared for appropriately.
Child protection, when understood more holistically, extends beyond a focus on the abuse and neglect of children. If children are not protected, their rights to survival and development are violated. Many children in South Africa continue to die from largely preventable causes of death as the protection mechanisms have either failed them or were not in place.
This failure has a direct bearing on the country's ability to make progress with respect to Millennium Development Goal 4 of reducing child mortality. However, children are also victims of murders, firearm fatalities, motor vehicle accidents and intentional injuries.
Government has prioritised child abuse as a focus area within the criminal justice system. To this end, the President noted at the launch of Child Protection Week that dedicated provincial antihuman-trafficking police co- ordinators and task teams have been established, and that there are competent human trafficking investigators in every organised crime unit.
Regular training workshops are presented to the police, especially to frontline officers working at police stations. Furthermore, the Children's Act makes it a crime to traffic children.
In addition, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act of 2007, contains provisions which criminalise human trafficking for sexual purposes or for any other purpose. Moreover, the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill was tabled before Parliament. The Bill addresses the shortcomings of existing legislative infrastructure on human trafficking. It provides for more extensive domestic legislation to combat and curb this crime. Specifically, it provides for the protection of and assistance to victims of trafficking and the prosecution of persons engaged in trafficking.
According to Missing Children South Africa, there have been more than 1 000 children that have been reported as missing since 1994. The ANC-led government has decided to do its outmost to help these families and the police to get these children safely back home.
The organisation has also linked missing children to the demand for children who are trafficked for cheap labour or for sexual exploitation. Duty bearers of children's rights have a responsibility to ensure that all children's rights are protected and not violated. Section 28 of the Constitution of South Africa outlines a package of socioeconomic rights for children.
The extent to which these international instruments and laws would improve the lives of children across the world is dependent on the extent to which state parties implement them and adopt domestic measures to comply with the relevant obligations. In addition to providing a clear constitutional provision that gives expression to children rights and the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, South Africa has in turn ratified all of the above treaties. Furthermore, policies, norms and standards, guidelines and programmes have been developed to assist victims of gender- based violence. An example of such programmes is the Victim Empowerment Programme.
The South African Constitution also contains a number of socioeconomic rights that only apply to children. In terms of section 28, every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health services and social services. Compared to everyone's socioeconomic rights, these rights are basic in nature. They are also free of internal limitations in terms of progressive realisation. I thank you, Chairperson.