Sloth-Nielsen, JuliaGose, Michael2023-06-202024-04-022023-06-202024-04-022002https://hdl.handle.net/10566/10485Magister Legum - LLMSo far little is known about the first comprehensive regional children's rights charter, the 1990 OA1J African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.' Th" Charter has been mentioned occasionally by documents and authors in different contexts. This happens mostly in the form of an addendum in the context of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the universal children's rights instrument. This limited use of the Charter's provisions has created the impression that it is not, and cannot, be used as a document in its own. The confusion around the Charter is further complicated when it is quoted under a wrong name, ‘when dates and numbers get confused,3 or when it seems to be nearly impossible to get a copy of the original draft of the Charter. The situation gets worse if one tries to find reliable data on dates of ratification, numbers of States Parties and exact date of entry into force of the instrument.5 Only very scarce literature can be found on the subject. Very few authors6 have written (brief) articles on the Charter in legal journals or contributions for books specializing in the field of children's rights. These authors, however, mainly concentrate on selected points of the Charter and its historical background. In fact most of them wrote on the topic before the Charter came into force on 29 November 1999enChildren's rightsRights and welfare of the childConvention on the rightsDraft of the charterCharterUniversity of the Western Cape