Africa’s children stand at a pivotal moment in Africa’s demographic transition. Nowhere in the world are children more central to a continent’s future than in Africa, where they account for almost half (47 percent) of all inhabitants. Africa’s child population currently stands at an estimated 580 million: four times larger than Europe’s child population, and accounting for about 25 percent of the world’s children. Africa’s child population will reach 1 billion by 2055 and will become the largest of all continents in the latter part of the 21st century.
Children and young people have the same general human rights as adults and also specific rights that recognize their special needs. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) set out the rights that must be realized for children to develop to their full potential. These treaties offer a vision of the child as an individual and as a member of a family and community, with rights and responsibilities appropriate to his or her age and stage of development. By recognizing children’s rights in this way, these treaties firmly set the focus on the whole child and the urgency of ensuring their well-being and development. They make clear the idea that a basic quality of life should be the right of all children, rather than a privilege enjoyed by a few.
ACRIF was founded with the main aim of advancing children’s rights and welfare as prescribed in CRC and ACRWC. ACRIF endeavors to protect and promote all the inherent and indivisible rights of children whoever and wherever they are in Africa.
ACRIF works every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We enable the children, their families and their communities to meet their basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their society.
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ACRIF (former ANPPCAN Somaliland) is a development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls and boys
