??National Children's Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of November (on 4 November in 2023). In an opinion piece for News24, Dr Chris Jones (Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology / Unit for Moral Leadership) writes that if we promote children's rights, we will be one step closer to creating a South Africa where children's well-being and safety are valued and prioritised.
Chris Jones*
National Children's Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of November (on 4 November in 2023) to highlight progress that is being made regarding the rights of children.
This is important because if we promote children's rights, we will be one step closer to creating a South Africa where children's well-being and safety are valued and prioritised.
Unfortunately, many children in our country experience high levels of physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional violence, as well as neglect. This put their education, physical and mental health, moral and social development, which are basic children's rights, at risk.
Families and households, despite all the potential locked up in them, are often those people and spaces with whom and where children are the most vulnerable and exposed to violence. Often this violence is kept silent and becomes a socialized pattern for parents and children with certain adverse consequences, especially for the child.
In 2017 the United Nations Children's Fund pointed out that approximately half of all children in the world experience violence, with nearly 300 million two-to four-year-olds subjected to violent discipline by their caregivers at home.
In Africa, the sexual exploitation of children was declared a “silent emergency" by the Africa Child Policy Forum in 2019.
Of sexual abuse cases reported to law enforcement in South Africa, 93% of juvenile victims knew the perpetrator.
Child abuse and neglect has become endemic in our country. The findings of a study of 2 000 children from birth till 22 years old (the so-called Mandela's Children) pointed out that 99% of these children have been exposed to some form of violence over their lifespan.
South Africa's violent colonial and apartheid history has left a legacy and culture of violence that continues to play out in households, schools, and communities. Patriarchal households often maintain this violence.
The homicide rate in our country is more than double the world average, with around half of these fatal acts occurring in the context of home-related child abuse and neglect, with children under four the most vulnerable.
Almost half of South African children indicated in a study that they had seen their mother experience some form of violence in their home. Of course, this can easily lead to further patterns of violence. Especially boys who experience violence as children can become violent offenders themselves later in life.
In 2015, violence against children in South Africa cost the country R173 billion — or approximately 4.3% of the country's gross domestic product.
Women are often the primary carers of children and therefore, considering the above statistics, the main perpetrators of early domestic violence against children. It is often a “displaced aggression cycle" where women, because they are often the victims of domestic violence, take out their frustration on the children in their care – a case of men punishing women and women punishing children.
Social norms and family attitudes and beliefs that support and perpetuate violence in various ways must be stopped. Unfortunately, violence against children is complicated by religious and cultural justifications, with their roots firmly grounded in patriarchy.
According to patriarchal mindsets, women and children are considered inferior with the latter regarded as the possessions or property of their parents. The time is long overdue to do away with (exclusive) male power, control, and dominance.
Beliefs such as that children are at the bottom of the hierarchy of value in households and communities, and that adults would be higher up in value and can, therefore, fully decide about the child's life and how they should be treated, need to be turned around, reasons Selina Palm from the Unit for Religion and Development Research at Stellenbosch 万博体育官网. According to her, respect and esteem are not a one-way street.
Furthermore, corporal punishment has been identified as a core driver of the high levels of violence against children in South Africa. Considering this, the decision by the Constitutional Court in 2019 prohibiting corporal punishment was a very positive development.
This will hopefully help to change and improve endemic social norms and practices regarding violence, especially in households. Although legislation is important, it is obviously not enough. There will have to be a much stronger moral commitment by South Africans to stop violence against women and children.
South Africa has also introduced an extensive curriculum for comprehensive sexuality education in schools in 2000, which aims, among other things, to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation of children by equipping them with more information and life skills.
This should strengthen many children's resistance to sexual abuse, as well as their readiness to report abuse, and their ability to protect themselves from abuse and exploitation. Unfortunately, both these two developments were met with opposition, especially from religious circles.
However, a strong inner conviction will have to be built that violence against women and children can in no way be justified. The complex interplay of various factors that lead to this violence must be tackled with even greater seriousness, and all possible role players will have to work more actively together on a common agenda on how best to do this. This requires much stronger political will and ethical leadership.
Of utmost importance is to continue equipping children with resilience and a strong skill base to successfully fulfil their developmental tasks at different stages of their lives, no matter the hardships that may come their way.
For children to be safe, to grow, to prosper, and to live to their full potential, they must be embedded in family support structures and conducive school and community environments. We are much more sensitive for the power of the context in which we find ourselves than we think.
On National Children's Day, we are again reminded of Section 28 of our Constitution which states that “a child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child". We owe it to our children to have their best interests at heart.
*Dr Chris Jones is Chief Researcher in the Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, and also Head of the Unit for Moral Leadership at Stellenbosch 万博体育官网.
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