Chairperson, we often snub international instruments like the universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, as being Western and irrelevant to Africa. Contempt prior to investigation has never failed to keep man in ignorance, because often the contents of such instruments have embedded in them what we all wish our children to have.
Who amongst us doesn't want any child to have quality health care, access to clean water, nutritional food, education, protection from sexual abuse and abduction? If we all want these things for our children and for any child, then we must display a political willingness to ensure the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNCRC, not only in South Africa but on the rest of the continent. We, as adults and as government, should desist from treating children as less than human. We adults often do to children what you would not do to an adult person. We find the use of violence acceptable when directed at children, yet we would lay charges of assault, crimen injuria, etc, if the same act of violence were to be directed at an adult.
Children are not second-class citizens and we should not treat them as such, because if we do, tomorrow we'll have adults and leaders who see themselves as second-class citizens, who lack the confidence to take this nation forward and to address longstanding issues. Former President Nelson Mandela rightly echoed that, and I quote:
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.
When we continue to fail to protect our children from violence, drug abuse, malnutrition, etc, whatever else we claim as victory, is void and has no value at all. I thank you. [Applause.]