Our History
Most Eastern Africa states have made effort to ratify and domesticate regional and international instruments that pertain to children rights. With the exception of Somalia and South Sudan, all states in the Eastern Africa region are party to both the ACRWC and CRC. These states have also made significant effort to put in place legislation for the implementation of the treaty provisions. In spite of this, the progress towards the improvement of the status of the child in the region has been slow and at times retrogressive. Indeed, children in Eastern Africa still grapple with issues of malnutrition, access to education, child labour, involvement in conflicts as is the case with South Sudan, child trafficking especially within the East African Community among other issues. Based on the above, it is evident that the challenge of realizing children rights goes beyond legislation. Operationalization of existing laws, implementation and establishment of strong institutions are critical in the realization of the rights of the child
Most Eastern Africa states have made effort to ratify and domesticate regional and international instruments that pertain to children rights. With the exception of Somalia and South Sudan, all states in the Eastern Africa region are party to both the ACRWC and CRC. These states have also made significant effort to put in place legislation for the implementation of the treaty provisions. In spite of this, the progress towards the improvement of the status of the child in the region has been slow and at times retrogressive. Indeed, children in Eastern Africa still grapple with issues of malnutrition, access to education, child labour, involvement in conflicts as is the case with South Sudan, child trafficking especially within the East African Community among other issues. Based on the above, it is evident that the challenge of realizing children rights goes beyond legislation. Operationalization of existing laws, implementation and establishment of strong institutions are critical in the realization of the rights of the child.
Civil Society Organizations play a crucial role of holding duty bearers accountable to their obligations to protect, observe, promote, respect and fulfil human rights. Whereas there has been a fairly vibrant civil society advocacy around children issues in most countries, greater milestones can be achieved through concerted efforts by CSOs in the region. Cross cutting issues for instance, need the attention, involvement and coordination of CSO efforts. Indeed, CSOs have the potential to produce effective results when working together with a common agenda that ultimately seeks to promote the best interests of the child.
It is for the aforementioned reasons that CSOs agreed to establish an Eastern Africa network that would mobilize and enhance their efforts especially in advocacy around children’s rights. The formation of the network also coincided with the ACERWC universal ratification and reporting campaign that was launched in 2014. The network seeks to feed in to this campaign by encouraging ACRWC ratification and state party reporting to the ACERWC. The Eastern Africa Child Rights Network of Civil Society Organizations (EACRN) was established in March, 2014 to coordinate efforts by civil society organizations in Eastern Africa in advocating for children rights
Our Goal
“To improve child rights governance in Eastern Africa through strengthened national child right coalitions that effectively promote child rights to ensure appropriate child survival, development, protection and child participation in decisions that affect them.”