EDITORIAL

Editorial

The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) is the only region-specific children's rights instrument on the planet. It was adopted on 11 July 1990, just days after the ninth birthday of the foundational African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), adopted on 27 June 1981. The ACRWC created standards beyond those stipulated in the ACHPR for African Union Member States to rise to better protect and empower children.

The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the Committee) oversees the implementation of the ACRWC and was established under article 32 thereof. The Committee is mandated to promote and protect the rights enshrined in the ACRWC, to monitor their implementation, and interpret the provisions of the ACRWC. The Committee does not function in isolation but constitutes one-third of the African regional human rights system alongside the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. These three organs work collectively to realise the ACRWC and the ACHPR in harmony. With this aim in mind, the organs have been jointly publishing the African Human Rights Yearbook (AHRY) since 2017. The AHRYis an open-access publication intended to celebrate advances, identify gaps to be addressed, and foster collaborative approaches to discharging the mandate of all stakeholders in the African human rights project.

This sixth volume of the AHRY comprises peer-reviewed contributions focused on aspects of the African human rights system, and the standards of the African Union in this regard, as well as articles specially focused on the African Union's theme for the year 2022: Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on The African Continent: Strengthening Agro-Food Systems, Health and Social Protection Systems for the Acceleration of Human, Social and Economic Capital Development. The Committee recognises the right to adequate nutrition as part of the right to health stipulated by article 14(2)(c) of the ACRWC and is in the process of developing a General Comment on the Right of Children to Adequate Nutrition to better guide Member States on ensuring children are provided with adequate nutrition in a manner that respects and promotes all of the other rights of the child.

The provision of peer-reviewed, open-access academic research ensures the accessibility of credible information on a specific component of human rights discourse. Continuous engagement on the matters described in the AHRY is key to their amelioration. Much like the three organs of the African human rights system cannot function in isolation, the system- itself- cannot reach full efficacy if not subjected to rigorous academic scrutiny. The task of better understanding that which remains to be achieved is aided by the contributions that fill the pages of this Yearbook. The onus lies on us all to critically engage with these contributions and take note of their key findings if we are to bring the aims envisioned by the ACHPR and ACRWC to fruition.

Hon. Joseph Ndayisenga

Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child