nd legal status” (article 10(3)).Like the ICESCR, the ICCPR recognizes the family as entitled to societal and state protection (article 23(1)), and so States Parties are to respect the liberty of parents to ensure their children’s religious and moral education in conformity with their own convictions (article 18(4)). If a marriage is dissolved, provision must be made for the protection of any children (article 23(4)). Article 24 of the ICCPR is specifically devoted to children. It stipulates that “every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State.” It further prescribes that every child must be registered immediately after birth and have a name and that every child has the right to acquire a nationality.
European Convention on Human Rights 1950
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, also known as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the first international human rights agreement to establish supervisory and enforcement machinery, obliges States Parties to “secure everyone within their jurisdiction” the rights and freedoms it sets forth (article 1). The ECHR uses throughout the term “everyone” (or, where appropriate, “no one”); as a result, children have successfully brought suit either on their own behalf or as co-applicants with their parents. Specific references to the young are found in two articles of the ECHR and concern legal proceedings. Article 5(1)(d), on the lawful procedures for depriving a minor of his or her liberty, permits the lawful detention of a minor for the purpose of educational supervision or for bringing him before the competent legal authority. Article 6(1) stipulates that everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing and that judgment will be pronounced publicly, but the hearing may be held in private when required by the interests of juveniles or the protection of the parties’ private life. Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR provides that while spouses enjoy equality of rights and responsibilities in their relations with their children, this does not prevent States “from taking such measures as are necessary in the interests of the children” (article 5).
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights 1981 (Banjul Charter) and Protocol
The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (hereinafter ACHPR) (also known as the Banjul Charter) encompasses civil and political as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. In regard to children, it emphasizes the rights of the family and of duties towards the family rather than the rights and duties of individual family members, which can be viewed as a reflection of African customary law. Thus, the ACHPR makes it incumbent on the individual “[t]o preserve the harmonious development of the family and to work for the cohesion and respect of the family; to respect his parents at all times, to maintain them in case of need” (article 29(1)). The ACHPR does not set forth any additional specific rights for children, relying instead on existing international protections regarding children’s rights (in article 18(3)). As in other international human rights documents, however, rights in the ACHPR are mentioned in connection with “the individual” or “every individual.”
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa makes numerous specific references to children, and to girls in particular. The Preamble calls for the condemnation and elimination of “any practice that hinders or endangers the normal growth and affects the physical, emotional and psychological development of women and girls.” States Parties are to enact and implement legislative measures to prohibit all forms of such harmful practices (article 2(1)(b)); protect women and girls against rape and all other forms of violence, including trafficking; and “ensure that in times of conflict and/