During the 46th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Rights held in Banjul from the 11 to 25 November 2009 different Human rights organisations presented their statement at the conference. The following statement was presented by Plan International and Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, in response to the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on the Right s of Women in Africa (This was Agenda item 8).
The full statement reads:
‘46TH ORDINARY SESSION OF THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS, NOVEMBER 11-25, BANJUL, THE GAMBIA

THE RIGHTS OF THE GIRL CHILD
Plan International and Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) welcome the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa’s report and her reference to children, especially to the girl child’s situation on the continent. It is on this particular point that we are intervening, in full knowledge that the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) protects the girl child as much as the adult woman.

Over recent years, the world community has begun to open its eyes to the situation of girls in our societies. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Call for Accelerated Action for an Africa Fit for Children give explicit attention to the girl child and commitments were made to girls and young women in the African Youth Charter.

This year, the world is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Additional important commemorations will be marked for next year, such as the 5th anniversary of the entry into force of the Maputo Protocol and the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

However, despite these legal and political frameworks protecting the girl child as a young woman and as a child, girls throughout the world are still subjected to discrimination and violence. Girls and women suffer gender-based discrimination stemming from socially-constructed gender roles, and social and cultural norms sometimes sanctioned by customary law.
At the 1990 World Summit for Children, the rights of girls to equal treatment and opportunities were placed firmly on the international agenda. Girls concerns were also highlighted as critical at the Beijing Platform for Action in
1995. In 1998 and in 2007, the Commission on the Status of Women focused respectively on adolescent girls and on discrimination and violence against the girl child.’