The children's parliament in Cameroon engaged to tackle the phenomenon of child abandonment.
The 23rd session of the Children's Parliament in Cameroon held on June 26, 2022, allowed the junior Deputies to advocate for the right of every child to live and grow up in a family environment.
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Organized this year under the theme "The phenomenon of child abandonment: an obstacle to the life, development and survival of children", the 23rd session of the Children's Parliament in Cameroon held on June 26, 2022, allowed the junior Deputies to advocate for the right of every child to live and grow up in a family environment.
In Cameroon, according to data from the Statistical Yearbook of the Ministry of Social Affairs produced in June 2012, 1029 abandoned children were supervised in the 10 Regions of Cameroon in 2008, 1162 were in 2009, and this number rose to 1326 in 2010.”. It is noticed more and more recorded cases of newborns found in public places. Street children are more and more visible. The increase in the number of reception establishments, most of them resulting from religious or charitable initiatives, testifies that children find themselves in a situation of abandonment and great vulnerability.
Studies have shown that the main causes of child abandonment are poverty or financial difficulties, being a single parent, lack of sex education, insufficient knowledge of family planning, the child with some form of disability, and a lack of services and resources to support parents of children with disabilities, such as care for the child during working hours.
Yet Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that every child has “the right to know his or her parents and to be brought up by them”. When a child is abandoned, this right is violated.
The Junior Parliamentarians have thus launched a strong appeal to challenge the members of the government so that strong actions are taken to put an end to this phenomenon. The young parliamentarians pleaded for the State to set up an Interministerial system of social, medical and psychological support for women in difficult situations with the threat of child abandonment.
"What is being done to guarantee responsible parenthood and above all to help women who are victims of emotional distress?", this question from Maelis Haman, Junior Deputy of the South Region, allowed the Minister of Women's empowerment and the Family to indicate:
We organize awareness sessions during commemorative days reserved for women, families and children. Also, we offer free training and small grants to women to enable them to be independent.
UNICEF will continue to listen to children themselves to ensure that their views are taken into account in the development of policies and programs for children.
Nadine Perrault, the UNICEF Representative present at this special plenary session, reaffirmed UNICEF's commitment to the government and its partners to strengthen child protection systems so that they are able to prevent parent-child separations that are detrimental to the development of children and capable of protecting those who, for one reason or another, are deprived of parental care.
