Children's Rights in Chad

Read the article below on the circumstances of children's rights in Chad to learn more about who the CRC treaty is designed to help. 

“One day he didn’t come home from school. All that night I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking, where is he sleeping? Does he have any food? Was he killed on the road? In the morning I sent my daughter to his friends’ houses and they told her that he’d gone off with one of his friends to join the rebels.” 

This was the experience for a 38-year-old woman in Guéréda, Aisha, whose 14-year old son joined the FUC (Front Uni pour le Changement) rebels in 2006. Unfortunately, it is a common one in Chad, a country in Central Africa with a population around 12 million.

An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 Chadian children are currently child soldiers.

Recruitment tactics range from the forceful to the voluntary. Children can be driven to join by poverty, abuse, and discrimination, or to seek revenge for violence against them or their families.

The poverty in Chad is horrendous. 1 child out of 10 will die before their birthday and 17 out of 100 die before their fifth birthday. Chronic malnutrition currently affects 39 % of the child population while 6.3% suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

U47P5029T2D460188F26DT20120420162657.jpg

Chad currently has the 3rd highest child mortality rate in the world.

Educational opportunities are limited: only 5 out of 10 children completed primary school.

UNICEF is currently working with the Chadian government to implement programs aimed at “preventing recruitment, withdrawal, and reintegration of all children associated with armed forces and armed groups”.

To learn more about how you can help: https://www.unicef.org/appeals/chad.html

UNICEF Club Contributors: Isabella Samutin, Alina Rahim, and Anthony Rebello

Join the OHS Unicef Team to learn more about these important issues, and to educate and advocate on Unicef’s behalf by working on all kinds of different projects. We hope to see you there! Contact Aino Alkio (skype: anskua00 or email: aino.alkio@hotmail.com) if you’d like to join us.

UNICEF ClubUNICEF Club