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Newsletter
The CATSR Rises up against the statuquo of the situation of the congolese children
Edho MUKENDI KAFUNDA, CATSR coordinator - 18 May 2010
A LAW THAT CAME AT THE RIGHT MOMENT
It has become common to say that the promulgation on January 10th 2009 of the law on child protection in DRC by the President of the Republic and Head of the State marks a breaking off with the situation of nonright in which the children used to live in the ex Belgian Congo. Rupture because today, the abuse of a child in this country exposes its authors to prosecution accompanied, if it is necessary, by penal sanctions. Rupture also because the Democratic Republic of Congo is not anymore this part of the world where the recruitment of children to go to war, rapes of young girls, assault and battery as well as denunciations of witchcraft of children enjoys structural impunity. All the decriers, the transgressors and the offenders of children rights know they are now vulnerable from the administrative and penal term; which is a great victory for all the personalities, associations and organizations which have mobilized so that the force of law prevails over the law of force regarding children.
A GROWING CONCERN
However, the same way that a wide opinion greeted, in the country and abroad, this great asset of law (legal asset) regarding the rights of children in DRC, this same opinion notes with concern that almost nothing, more than one year after the promulgation of the above law, has been undertaken at the Congolese public authorities level in order to make the change perceptible and effective in the every day practice. Indeed, more than twelve months have passed by since the DRC has adopted this law. We have to admit that the public authorities concerned by the implementation of this important national legal instrument, the Ministries in charge on top, have hardly made it their preoccupation and priority. It is thus the statuquo which prevails in the field, with as consequence that the situation of the child remains precarious in this country where the legal culture of protection towards them is slowly taking roots.
THE CATSR RISES UP AGAINST THE STATUQUO OF THE SITUATION OF THE CONGOLESE CHILDREN
Being one of the main protagonists of the campaign in favor of the promulgation of the law on child protection in DRC, The Social Street Work Support Committee ( CATSR) did not cross the arms in front of the characteristic immobility of the Government to face the constitutional obligation to enforce this law. With their characteristic activism, the members of the CATSR, encouraged and supported by the structural partners of Northern countries, remobilized in the beginning of December 2009 for a wide field deployment. With an ad hoc questionnaire, the CATSR investigators went on to inquire the reasons of the government's lethargy when it was necessary to implement the measures of the law. The results of this investigation led to the publication in late December 2009 of a plea brochure in favor of the effective implementation of the law. This 28-pages brochure makes motivated recommendations for the Head of State, the Support Institutions for Democracy, the children themselves and the national and international community to make them aware of the problem. The CATSR hopes that everything will be implemented so that the law 09/001 of January 10th 2009 on child protection in DRC does not remain a dead letter.
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