Children’s Act of 2005

            On Tuesday, I lead a discussion around South Africa’s Children’s Act of 2005.  The mission of the Children’s Act is to support and promote children’s rights as outlined in South Africa’s constitution.  A child’s rights as outlined in the constitution are that all children (Under the age of 18) are important.  All children have the right to safe and healthy lives regardless of their gender, problems, cultural or ethnic background, spoken language, ability, religion, or race.  All decisions made in regards to the child have to be in the child’s best interest and the child must be informed.   As defined, the child’s best interest can be defined as thinking about the child’s family (caregiver, siblings, biological parents etc), culture, history, health and well-being.

            Within the act certain terms and processes around serving children are defined and outlined.  The act defines and outlines services around these key areas:

·      Parental responsibilities

·      Child Protection Services including CPS agencies, non-profits, foster care, adoption, international adoption, segregate motherhood,  and cluster foster care.

·      Partial care including schools, crèches, educares, and child and youth care centers (CYCC).

·      Children’s Court

·      The reduction of harm to children from cultural practice such as female virginity testing, circumcision, female genital cutting, and underage marriage. 

·      Children’s Health including access to HIV Testing.

·      Enforcement of the act including visits, stats, delegate’s responsibilities to members of social development etc.

            Though the Children’s act the best intentions, the agencies lack many of the resources and capacity to fulfill many of the outline guidelines.  The act also lacks clarity in many of the key terms such as “best interest”.