La miseria de Job (2:1—3:26)

The AU lacks an agenda on CIAC and this is a major factor for why the issue is not among the organization‟s top priorities. One of the findings of this study is that there seems to be a problem with setting priorities in the AU as children‟s rights in general is seen as being of secondary importance. Tiruneh Sinnshaw1 suggests that: “what it [AU] does and how it behaves and how it perceives situations is almost how it is done in each country. It is the sum total of the behavior of each country that reflects itself in the AU”. This means that if there is lack of political will on the part of member states to address the issue it is unlikely that the AU will approach it any differently. Chikezie Anyanwu2 suggests that this could be addressed if protection of CIAC was high on the agenda of the AU Assembly which has the power to make the institutional changes needed. However, decision making at that level is highly political and Francis Onditi3 suggests that some countries use their contributions to the organization to

1 _{Interview, 15 July 2013.}

2 _{Chikezie Anyanwu (Child Protection Adviser, Plan International) Interviewed on 17 July 2013 in Addis Ababa,}

Ethiopia.

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influence the agenda to cover up human rights violations including those committed against children. Tiruneh Sinnshaw argues that there is “general inertia and ignorance” to the special needs of CIAC and this is preventing the AU from taking action on the issue. Chikezie Anyanwu agrees and points out that the organization has no information about how children are being affected by conflicts in Africa including those in Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or Central African Republic. At the Second Pan-African Forum on Children held in Cairo, Egypt from 29 October-2 November 2007, Ministers of AU member states responsible for children‟s rights and wellbeing issued a Call for Accelerated Action on the Implementation

of the Plan of Action Towards Africa Fit for Children (2008-2012) which states that „[they

request the] AU to develop an additional protocol to the ACRWC on elimination of involvement of children in armed conflict‟. At the time of writing – which is 7 years from when this request was made - no such additional protocol exists. The AU Department of Social Affairs argues that this additional protocol should be a priority issue for the AU and ACERWC. In addition of this, it argues that: “neither instrument [ACRWC and the CRC‟s Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict] sufficiently addresses the core elements of post-conflict actions and peace-building efforts and the protection of children on the one hand and their effective participation on the other” (2010b, 115). Another challenge related to priority setting in the AU is that protection of CIAC has not been integrated in to its peace and security agenda.

The AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) - the lead body in the African Peace and Security Architecture - has not integrated protection of children as part of its work on peace mediation, conflict management and peace building. Dr Dersso (2013) argues that there is a gap between its mandate and implementation in that human rights have yet to be mainstreamed into its activities. In June 2012, the AU Executive Council issued decisions EX.CL/Dec.712 (XXI) which requested „the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC), the Peace and Security Council (PSC) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to take into account the rights of the child in their agenda and cooperate actively with the Committee [ACERWC]‟. Though such decisions can be considered as an opportunity, the use of words such as “requests” and “take into account” indicate that decision makers still do not appreciate the seriousness of the issue and the level of response it requires of them. Since 2013, PSC and

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ACERWC have organized joint sessions to discuss collaboration around protection of CIAC and - at the time of writing - efforts are underway to institutionalize their relationship. Though this can be said to provide an opportunity to put this issue on the peace and security agenda, it is too early to tell what progress has been made as it is a new initiative and it takes time for changes to be effected within a bureaucratic and political organization such as the AU. Dr Solomon Dersso4 suggests that: “[t]here is a need to develop systematic guidelines for ensuring that issues of children‟s protection are included and are adequately reflected whenever the African Union and the Peace and Security Council designs mediation efforts, peacemaking initiatives, [and] whenever the AU deploys peace support operations”. Such an approach may however prove difficult at the moment as the AU has a more reactionary approach to addressing conflicts rather than a proactive one that equally invests in prevention.

Compared to child rights, there has been greater success in integrating gender-related issues on the AU agenda. According to a press statement of its 364th meeting, the PSC commended the AU Commission for its work on gender mainstreaming in its Peace and Security Department (PSD) (African Union 2013e). It also stated that: “[r]esponsibility for the implementation of a gender policy must be diffused across the organization structure, rather than concentrated in a small central Unit” (Ibid, p.2). For protection of CIAC to be realized, children‟s rights in general should be similarly diffused in the AU rather than everything being shouldered by the ACERWC with 11 members and 5 Secretarial staff. The AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) holds an annual open session on the situation of women and children in situations of armed conflict where it discusses these issues with other AU bodies, international organizations, and CSOs. However a review of PSC press statements on these sessions indicates that discussions are primarily on addressing violence against women and gender mainstreaming in the AU with little attention being given to specific issues of children‟s vulnerabilities and protection. They also show that there is a tendency to group women and children‟s issues together which shows a lack of appreciation for the special needs of the latter. There was an instance where a member of ACERWC complained to organizers of one

4 _{Solomon Dersso, PhD (Head of the Peace and Security Council Report, Institute of Security Studies)}

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of these sessions for not inviting the Committee5_{. Mary [pseudo]}6 _{says that there are some}

officials within the AU who do not know that the ACERWC even exists. This point to another challenge which is a lack of synergy between AU bodies with mandates that include protection of CIAC, which is further discussed later in this Chapter. Another challenge that prevents this issue from being high on the AU agenda is structural weaknesses.