Children should be heard, not just seen

Children below the age of 18 can and should be allowed to input into Lesotho’s law-making processes. Their right to participate in all matters affecting them is enshrined in the widely ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989 and entered into force in 1990.

Conventional wisdom is that as long as children are minors, adults must make laws on their behalf. But Lesotho may have to turn this wisdom on its head since 40 percent of the country’s 2.2 million people are below the age of 18.

Children below the age of 18 can and should be allowed to input into Lesotho’s law-making processes. Their right to participate in all matters affecting them is enshrined in the widely ratified  United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989 and entered into force in 1990.

Conventional wisdom is that as long as children are minors, adults must make laws on their behalf. But Lesotho may have to turn this wisdom on its head since 40 percent of the country’s 2.2 million people are below the age of 18.

The Lesotho Law Reform Commission (LLRC) also has paved the way, through its Child Law Reform Project (CLRP),  for the inclusion of  children in making laws. LLRC, set up by an Act of Parliament in 1993, is mandated to make laws that are sensitive and responsive to current challenges.

The review process began in 2000 following concerns raised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with and for children, as well as by other law implementing agencies.

Save the Children Alliance, for example, seeks to bring about the meaningful participation of children in various processes that affect their lives. In Lesotho, Save the Children UK, has guaranteed participation of children in the CLRP, but how this will be sustained is still questionable, since even according to the CLRP’s chairperson, Dr Itumeleng Kimane, children’s participation in the process has been influenced largely by external partners.

Children have used various forms of media – radio drama, poems, theatre – to inform the review process, Dr Kimane says. "It has been experimental and I think it works." What is needed, she says, is clear selection guidelines to avoid "tokenism" and "favouritism" in the process.

Some of the issues children have raised during the CLRP for law makers to consider include access to a home and land when they have been orphaned, and better institutions for counselling and rehabilitating children who commit crimes.

Currently, children are sent to the Juvenile Training Centre (JTC), an institution that is considered as an  "approved school", but it is run like a prison.

Children will one day become adults who are voters and policymakers in their own right. This is not an automatic skill as evidenced by the governance of many of our countries by adults now. To become responsible and active citizens with an insightful understanding of governance and democratic processes, children must learn early what their role as citizens can and should be.

Young people too should hold policymakers accountable when laws are enacted that affect their lives and their future. But to do so, they cannot just be on the outside of the lawmaking process looking in.

Selloane Mokuku is a member of Lesotho’s Media Arts Watch Association (MAWA) Tsireletso and a child rights activist.

 This article is part of the GEM Opinion and Commentary Service that provides views and perspectives on current events.