CM/Res.1638 (LXIII)
RESOLUTION ON THE SIGNATURE AND RATIFICATION OF THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS AND WELFARE OF THE CHILD
The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Sixty-Third Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 26th to 28 February, 1996,
Having considered the Progress Report of the Secretary General on the status of ratifications of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child,
Recalling Resolution AHG/Res. 197 (XXVI) by which the 26th Session of the Assembly of Heads - of State and Government adopted the African Charter on the Right6 and Welfare of the Child,
Noting that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in November, 1989 only six months before the
adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child has been ratified by all Member States, except one,
Recalling that the African Charter was intended to be a complementary legal mechanism to that of the UN, in order to enhance the enjoyment of the Rights of Children in Africa,
Further recalling Declaration AHG ST.4 (XVI) Rev. I on the Rights and Welfare of the African Child, adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in its 16th Ordinary Session in Monrovia, Liberia in July 1979,
Noting with concern that only six Member States have so far signed and ratified the Charter while 19 have merely signed it and that the rest of the Member States have neither signed nor ratified the Charter:
STRONGLY APPEALS to Member States which have not yet done so, to urgently sign and ratify the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and to deposit the Instruments of Ratification-with the Secretary-General;
REQUESTS the Secretary General to submit a Progress Report on this matter to the 65th Session of Council.