• by Servaas van den Bosch (windhoek)
• Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Inter Press Service

A mammoth draft bill on child care and protection is nearing completion in Namibia. A gaggle of experts has made recommendations; a muster of officials will decide what goes in and what stays out. And all worry what the politicians will say.

To table, or not to table before the elections in November? That was the big question for the 40 or so participants in a three-day workshop in Windhoek comparing Namibia's draft legislation with the 2005 Children’s Act in South Africa.

Some feel it's better to wait till after a new cabinet has been chosen, but others, like Dianne Hubbard, coordinator of the Gender Research and Advocacy desk of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) in the Namibian capital, disagree.

'It’s important to garner support with existing ministers, as there will always be some continuity in the new cabinet.'

The experts met in Windhoek to hammer out the fine details of a bill that has been fifteen years in the making. Many of those at the workshop – lawyers, academics and child advocates - came from South Africa, which went through the same process between 1997 and 2005.

'An embarrassingly long time,' remarks professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen, Dean of Law of South Africa's University of the Western Cape and an internationally-recognised authority on children’s legislation.

'The current Namibian act from 1960 is rooted in the same historical context as South Africa’s old legislation, so Namibia's child protection practice is closer to South Africa's than any other country,' she said, explaining the presence of the South African experts.

'But because South Africa had such a long draft, our Act incorporates best practice from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Sudan and Lesotho, you will be hard-pressed to find an African Act that stands on its own.'

This borrowing is necessitated by the specific African context says Sloth-Nielsen. 'Developed and developing countries are completely different. In Africa, children constitute fifty percent of the population, which isn't comparable to Europe, where it is way less.

'There's also massive urbanisation with the associated breakdown of traditional family systems, and finally the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic changes everything.'

But there are also differences between African countries. 'There are different harmful cultural practices over the continent. The most widely-known is female genital mutilation, which however doesn't occur in the Southern African region. South Africa is different from Namibia though, in its governmental setup and its constitutional provision on non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.'

What all African acts covering child protection have in common though, says Sloth-Nielsen, are the difficult choices that policy-makers face, because resources are limited and skills are scarce. 'In the UK, the chapter on adoption alone numbers a thousand pages. That's just not realistic in our contexts.

'We have to decide what is important and implementable. In South Africa, for instance the Act provides for a children’s abusers register, but national roll-out of this proves immensely difficult and costly. Including such a register is a policy decision Namibia should carefully consider.'

Magistrate and child welfare commissioner Rina Horn from Katutura township near Windhoek, is also worried about the implementation process. 'The new legislation channels all interventions through the ministry of gender equality and child welfare that is already notably short on social workers.'

The situation, she says, is exacerbated by the implementation of the Child Status Act that deals with parental rights out of wedlock, last year. 'That Act meant a lot of extra work for social workers and the courts, we have had over 60 applications in just two months. There certainly will be a capacity problem.'

Victoria Theron, control social worker at the ministry of gender equality and child welfare: 'There is a fifty percent vacancy rate for social workers in Windhoek. In the regions it's worse. You will find two people doing the equivalent of eight or nine positions.

'It's just crisis management with no time for prevention. And social workers are being poached. Even qualified people of (the age of) sixty will go to Canada to earn a better salary.'

To address this the child welfare ministry is working with the national ministry of home affairs to simplify the work permit process for foreign social workers, trying to offer better salaries and making bursaries available.

This recruitment effort runs parallel with the promulgation of the Act and the drawing-up of Regulations, a process that will take at least another year and a half. The Child Bill is in its entirety sponsored by UNICEF and has so far cost roughly 350,000 U.S. dollars, including training for the judiciary that is scheduled for next month.

'But the input of experts has been extremely useful,' says Helena Andjama, the director of child welfare at the ministry. 'Although we have to make choices because of constraints. We really want to include pressing matters as baby dumping, HIV issues, child pornography and trafficking of children, but also realise that things like a child abuse register should perhaps come at a later stage.'

The nationwide consultation through flyers, Facebook and sms has also helped the officials to make some tough decisions. 'The changed age - 14 years – for voluntary HIV-testing, consent to medical treatment and contraceptives was for instance inspired by public feedback,' says Theron. 'The people and the NGOs can own the Act, because it's in large part of their making.'

'From here the bill goes through a plethora of technical steering groups and inter-ministerial committees to finally wind up in cabinet in October,' Andjama said, outlining the implementation process to the delegates.

It is an ambitious agenda, she admits in response to objections from the audience.

'But a new parliament might have different priorities that delay the bill,' says Theron.

That’s why a charm offensive - 'sensitising' to use the NGOs' own term – is being embarked on now. Hubbard: 'So that the next administration and assembly are aware that this is a bill that was drafted with unprecedented public support and input.'

SIDEBAR: The new Namibian Child Care and Protection bill will replace the outdated colonial Children’s Act 33 of 1960. Many of the proposed changes have to do with Southern Africa's rural-urban transition, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the breakdown of traditional family structures, globalisation and various international conventions on the rights of children.

There will be, for instance, many changes relating to foster care, allowing for kinship-care and support of child-headed households. The bill also foresees new institutions to ensure that child protection doesn’t suffer in an administrative jungle of different ministries.

A Child Welfare Advisory Council will be established to monitor implementation of the law and advise government on child right issues, while a national Ombudsman will be established to investigate claims of child abuse.

Under the new act, parents and extended family can draw up parenting plans outlining important aspects of the upbringing, such as schooling and payment of maintenance. Although the plan is voluntary, parents can choose to have it converted into a court order.

Corporal punishment in the home will not be outlawed, but the Bill prescribes forceful campaigns against abusive practices. The age of consent to medical treatment, voluntary testing and obtaining contraceptives is lowered to 14 (it is 12 in South Africa) to protect children from the threat of HIV/AIDS.

Although the South African Children’s Act 38 of 2005 lowered the age of majority to 18, Namibia will probably stick with the traditional age of 21, experts say.

Another clause with potentially major impact, instructs the minister of child welfare to provide prevention and early intervention services to communities and families. This could mean assisting parents with alcohol problems in order to protect the children in the household, for instance.

A universal grant for children might be added to the Bill, while a proposed register for child abusers is likely to be scrapped, because it will be hard to implement.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service