Libreville, June sixteenth 2023: The Day of the African Child is celebrated yearly on the sixteenth of June. Its intention is to commemorate the SOWETO kid’s rebellion of 1976, in the course of which hundreds of South African college students protested the apartheid government’s use of Afrikaans as their language of preparation in Bantu schools. The rebellion resulted in the deaths of heaps of college students and is regarded a turning factor in the war towards apartheid.
Nowadays, the Day of the African Child is an possibility to rejoice the consciousness of the rights of the African child, in line with the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The motive is additionally to increase recognition of the challenges that kids face. One of the most urgent challenges dealing with African teens nowadays is a lack of get entry to to digital technology.
These rights consist of no longer solely kid’s rights to safety from all types of violence, however additionally their rights to participation and expression of opinion. Without enough safeguards, teenagers will be at a higher chance of damage online. Children face the equal risks on-line as they do offline, and consequently ought to be protected
To mark the Day of the African Child in Gabon, UNICEF, UNICEF Ambassador Gwen Madiba and NGO OTIMA are co-organizing two days of activities on the sixteenth and seventeenth of June 2023. The non-public quarter is additionally conscious of the significance of the day, and agencies together with Airtel, Eramet, Groupe Prix Import and FMCT are aiding the event, which will take region at the Baie des Rois. In addition to the presidential events, cognizance will be unfold thru the dissemination of free messages with the aid of Airtel about the safety of adolescents on line and the misuse of the Internet towards younger people. These will be primarily based on the regulation on the Children’s Code in the Gabonese Republic. Around two hundred young people from nine reception facilities throughout Libreville are anticipated to take part in the event.
UNICEF is calling on the government, businesses, and persons to guide efforts to bridge the digital divide in Africa. By working together, we can make certain that all Gabonese adolescents can take part in the digital economic system and construct a higher future for themselves and their communities.
