ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD

The World Federation of Democratic Youth joins the African region in commemorating the Day of the African Child on June 16 2009. In 1991, the African Union the then Organization of African Unity declared that June 16 be the Day of the African Child in remembrance of the June 16 1976 when hundreds of black school children in Soweto, South Africa were massacred in cold blood and thousands injured by the racist and imperialist regime when they took to the streets to protest against the inferior quality of their education, and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Thus therefore June 16th of every year has been commemorated across the African continent as the Day of the African Child.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth hereby calls all progressive youth movements from across the continent to continue exposing such brutal, barbaric and uncouth acts by imperialists. We also note with great concern that in the current global political setup the intervention of imperialists is derailing the
progress towards empowering the young people of African nations. We encourage governments to provide local resources for empowerment and shun the conditional meager donations of imperialists.

We therefore urge Governments of African Nations to effectively deal with issues which hinder the progress of child development especially in education, culture, religious, health, child abuse, ending the issue of child soldiers, enabling youths to participate in the economic issues of their nations amongst other issues.

The leadership must also engage in robust educational campaigns on the dangers of HIV and AIDS. We call for an end to the use of children as soldiers in countries, which are currently under war, an end to child trafficking.

The African Commission must encourage some African states that have not ratified African Youth Charter to do so and to enable child representatives to air out their views and concerns on how they expect to be done regarding their needs.

However we strongly encourage governments and concerned youth organizations to educate children the history of their nations as this helps them build a concrete historical background as well as preserving African values and culture.

We wish all Africans living in Africa and the Diaspora a strong commemoration of the Day of African Child 2009 under the Theme “Africa Fit for Children: Call for accelerated action towards their survival”