Current Date:

Saturday, 20 January 2018
 

Impact of Constitutional Amendments on Children's Issues

Early Marriage prevents Girls from Completing Their Education
The National Commission for Sudanese parliamentarians and the National Council for Child Welfare, in collaboration with UNICEF, organized a workshop on the impact of constitutional amendments on children's issues.
The Speakers  called for the need to establish a marriageable age for girls and young people with a categorical legal text and to abide by the laws on rights, the empowerment and development of women to keep abreast of developments at the local, regional and international levels and the need to develop the law of proof of parentage and upbringing Sound social.
   
Sara Abu a member of the National Congress , stressed  to activate the judiciary and the law to take into account the rules of  Holy Guran  and Sunnah  .

The  participants paid a leadership role in educating the community on women's and children's rights, as women's and children's issues are basic to the family, noting the need to harmonize civil laws with the child law , and the need to enact and activate laws that prevent underage marriage.

Early marriage prevented girls from completing their education and prevented the realization of the principle of self-approval and the need to change, develop and secure the status of women in the society and reconcile age deference between men and women in marriage, explaining that early marriage leads to many venereal diseases such as syphilis , fistula and other diseases, to prevent the spread of divorce and the suffering of children, are necessary to amend certain legal provisions and conventions on children and to take into account the interests of justice and the child.

The participants  called for the amendment of the Personal Status code to guarantee women's rights, review the marriage document, and seek   a clear law that preserves women's rights upon divorce. Members also called for awareness-raising sessions and workshops on the rights of women and children, which would reduce crimes against women and
children in areas of conflicts.

 It is worth noting that the Status of CRC in national law revealed that                                                          
In 2010, the Sudanese Government reported to the Committee on the Rights of the Child that any convention ratified by the Sudan shall be considered part of the legal framework in the country, and any article in any law that contradicts it should be amended or eliminated, as the Interim National Constitution of the Sudan, 2005, stipulates in article 27, the Bill of Rights.”

In its 2010 Concluding Observations on the Sudanese government's report, the Committee on the Rights of the Child welcomed the Child Act (2010). The Committee was “concerned, however, that the State party is yet to establish a regulatory and policy framework to effect its implementation” and “noted with particular concern the absence of a comprehensive body of subsidiary legislation and that many government agencies have not been able to implement the Child Act as they are yet to receive the necessary instructions from the National Council for Child Welfare.”

Reports stated that in its 2010 Concluding Observations on the Sudanese government's report, the Committee on the Rights of the Child was generally concerned that the ongoing armed conflicts in the State have had a highly negative impact on children across the country and on the implementation of the CRC as a whole in the State. In particular, they were concerned with the implementation of Article 12.6, in that the views of all children, especially girls, are not respected, nor are they taken into account in decisions that affect them. Sudan does have specific legislation in place which allows a child to institute legal proceedings through his or her legal guardian and to provide testimony, but there is no legislation that specifically protects the voice of the child. The Committee was concerned with the prevalence of physical and psychological abuse occurring in families that is not adequately monitored, reported on or addressed.