DECISION ON THE REPORT OF THE AFRICAN COMMITTEE
OF EXPERTS ON THE RIGHTS AND WELFARE OF
THE CHILD (ACERWC)
Doc. EX.CL/858(XXV)
The Executive Council,
1. TAKES NOTE of the Report of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child ;
2. ADOPTS the Report and commends the Committee for the work done in monitoring the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child;
3. WELCOMES the Campaign on the Universal Ratification of and Reporting on the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which builds towards the 25th Anniversary of the adoption of the Charter in 2015 and URGES the 7 Member States who have not yet ratified the Charter, to expedite their ratification process for possible completion on or before the end of 2015; and State Parties which have placed reservations on the application of the provisions of the Charter to consider the withdrawal of the same;
4. CALLS UPON States Parties that have not yet submitted their reports to the Committee to comply with the provisions of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and expedite the process of submission of their reports;
5. ADOPTS the theme of the Day of the African child (DAC) for 2015: ‘25 years after the adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our collective efforts to end child marriage in Africa’ and REQUESTS Member States to commemorate the DAC and report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee;
6. COMMENDS the Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa initiated by the AUC and REQUESTS the Commission to submit biennial report on progress made in ending child marriage;
7. ENDORSES the initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC) to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Child Marriage among the Committee members, and requests the Committee and the AUC to discuss and finalize the modalities;
8. URGES the Commission to address as a matter of urgency, the implementation of the Executive Council Decision EX.CL/Dec.776(XXIII) on assessment of financial and human resources needed by the Committee with a view to adequately equipping the Committee to discharge its mandates effectively as envisaged in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child;
RECOMMENDS to the Assembly the amendment of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child with a view to implementing Executive Council Decisions, EX.CL/Dec 776(XXIII) of May 2013, as well as EX.CL/Dec 233 (VII) of July 2005, on the possibility of the renewal of the term of office of the Committee Members (Article 37(1)), and based on the written opinion from the AU Legal Counsel in support of the amendment and its coming into force with immediate effect expressed by the African Committee as required by Article 48(1) of the Charter, to amend Article 37(1) of the ACRWC to read as follows:
“The members of the Committee shall be elected for a term of five years and may be re-elected only once. However, the term of four of the members elected at the first election shall expire after two years and the term of six others, after four years”.