RIA reiterates that the physical and psychological safety of children is key to their health and future prospects. Where this safety is threatened, their rights and needs are ignored.

Children who are affected include adolescents, females, refugees, and displaced children, children in armed conflict, tension and strife. As such, the first step towards the promotion and protection of this safety lies in the application of international human rights law in humanitarian situations. The requirement to protect and to ensure the protection of the rights of the child, calls for the use of international human rights law as the measure of first resort in a humanitarian crisis. Reliance on human rights law as captured in the African Children’s Charter, for example, offers protection of children affected by conflict, crises and humanitarian situations, and protection in other situations. This is because human rights standards give rise to legal obligations that are generally valid at all times and in all situations, including during humanitarian crises.

Thus, the application of humanitarian law is a complementary tool to the protection of children’s rights in humanitarian contexts.

The universally recognized humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence are themselves linked to the core principles of children’s rights, particularly the right to life, survival and development, non-discrimination, and the best interests of the child. The requirement to place children’s rights first is an indication that where there is an obligation, the requisite body or individual must fulfil such an obligation in the interests of the child or children concerned. This is a restatement of the need to uphold the best interests of the child at all times. Placing children’s rights first is a recognition of the principle in Article 4(1) of the Children’s Charter that should be interpreted broadly to incorporate all actions that directly or indirectly affect children. The best interests’ principle ought to be used as a ‘gap filling’ tool that is used to ensure that the child whose rights are violated in a humanitarian crisis are subsequently recognized and protected by the world.

Humanitarian Action in Africa: Children’s Rights First the best interest of the child. This should be evaluated through the tools used to re-integrate the children who are affected by the humanitarian crisis. Closely linked to the child’s right to life, survival and development is the right to health. Humanitarian crises affect children’s health not only physically, but mentally and psychologically as well.

States needs to pay attention to the health needs of children, even and especially during humanitarian crises, and respond to their survival needs.

Attention should also be paid to the health needs of children based on gender differences. For example, adolescent girls in humanitarian crises may have sanitation and/or menstruation as well as sexual and reproductive health needs (including sexually transmitted diseases) that are different from the needs of other affected children. Also of great importance to children’s survival and development during humanitarian crises is the right to education.

RIA affirms the importance of securing education for children regardless of context. Access to education and learning helps children cope with the trauma of humanitarian disasters, enabling them to build resilience and provides them with some form of stability.

What do children want in times of emergency and crisis? They want an education, focused on children’s development, able to prepare children for preventing and dealing with or responding to humanitarian crises, equipping them with practical skills to enhance their protection and survival. We call the government of Botswana to have strategies in place to ensure children can continue to access education during humanitarian crises if they arise.

‘Children’s rights first’ underscores the interconnectedness of all children rights whether during or outside of humanitarian crises. Like the Charter (and the global United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – CRC), Agenda 2030 recognizes the interdependence of rights and underscores the importance of the goals to the development of children. Through the adoption of a rights-based approach to sustainable development, children’s rights are highlighted as the pivot around which State action towards development should revolve. This approach increases monitoring and improves accountability of governments towards the realization of children’s rights in connection to Agenda 2030 goals. Similarly, it is important for all stakeholders, including those working in separate fields of development, policy, and human rights, to work together and ensure a cohesive and comprehensive response to humanitarian crises rather than working in silos.

With all this having been said, it is vital that we as RIA remind the public on the Hands of Our Genitals campaign which is aimed at protecting intersex children from the health risks and permanent damage caused by surgeries done on them at birth to ‘normalize’ their sex and fit them in a box.