Lastly the umbrella of 19 civil society organizations gathered to assess a periodically released report to the African Union on the children’s rights. These civil society organizations revealed that one of the shortcomings in the report include that fact that severe sanctions are still administrated to children.
Therefore, they urged Rwandan government to set up Ministerial decree defining sanctions that are worthy to be administered to children.
One of the members of that umbrella labelled ‘Coalition Umwana Ku Isonga’ named Maximillien Ruzigana underlined that bitterness of the painful punishments, including beating children and called it useless and wild.
Ruzigana Maximillien, who is the coordinator of that umbrella’s operations, said that the government should clearly elaborate sanctions that should be administered to children as to help parents and educators apply them in accordance with the law and common sense.
Beating children is both psychologically and phyicically harmful. At a long run, this practice will significantly change the child’s mind from bad to worse, he said.
Even though this issue is a bit controversial, the chairman of the Umbrella of Rwandan civil society, Jean Leonald Sekanyange champions the idea that beating children hurts more than it cures.
He, however, adds that putting up reasonable sanctions for children is one of wise decisions to take.
Mobilizing parents and educators on effective sanctions to apply while punishing children should be one of the key strategies to adopt, one of the participants said.
The periodical report to be released to the African Union brings in every aspect that impacts on children’s rights.
It includes education, health, sports, and rights to nationality, among others.
The ‘Coalition Umwana ku isonga’ published recommendations for the government to asses and take decisions on it.
UM– USEKE.RW
