Assessing the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child (ACRWC) as a blueprint towards the attainment of children’s rights in Africa

Abstract

The paper seeks to analyse the provisions of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). The paper seeks to make this analysis based on the harmonisation and monism theories of the relationship between international law and municipal law which states that international pieces of law are essentially created to be domesticated within the municipal law of a state and vice versa. To this end, the ACRWC essentially acts as a blueprint for the facilitation of domestic measures and municipal law aimed at upholding children’s rights in Africa. The ACRWC should then be an immaculate blueprint that can be followed by states so as to churn out domestic measures that are in the best interests of the child. The paper however seeks to assess whether there are vague, uncouth and contradictory articles within the provisions of the charter that might be interpreted by the states to the detriment of the rights of the African child.