Childhood under Malawian laws as the Constitution becomes of age

• DOI: 10.10520/EJC139798
• Author: Violet Odala
• Pages: 97-120
• Published date: 01 January 2012
• Date: 01 January 2012

CHILDHOOD UNDER MALAWIAN LAWS AS

THE CONSTITUTION BECOMES OF AGE

Violet Odala*

ABSTRACT

The year 1994 marked the be gin ning of a new con sti tu tional era for Ma la -

wi ans in gen eral but, most im por tantly, for chil dren as the fu ture cus to di ans

of the Ma lawi na tion. Those who were born in 1994 by in ter na tional s tan -

dards be came adults in 2012 as the Con sti tu tion it self be came of age. Thus,

the year 2012 marked a sig nif i cant year for chil dren in Ma lawi as the age of

18 is in ter na tion ally re cog nised as the end of child hood. H ow ever, de spite

the Con sti tu tion at tain ing the age of 18, it of fers very lim ited pro tec tion to

chil dren as far as the def i ni tion of a child is con cerned as the only sec tion

pro vid ing for chil dren’s rights ap plies to per sons aged be low 16. Much as this

po si tion falls far be low in ter na tional stan da rds, it has re gret ta bly been rep li -

cated in the re form of child-re lated laws in Ma lawi wherein a child is

de fined as a per son be low the age of 16. Thus, chil dren aged be tween 16 and

17 can not ben e fit from the spe cial protections for chil dren her alded by the

new con sti tu tional era. As a re sult, al though we may talk of t he Con sti tu tion

be com ing of age in 2012, by Ma la wian stan dards it be came of age at 16, in

the year 2010. This ar ti cle un der scores the sig nif i cance of ex pand ing the def -

i ni tion of a child to in clude those aged be tween 16 and 18 years. It high lights

the need for the en hanced pro tec tion of chil dren by es tab lish ing min i mum

ages of child hood that are com pat i ble with in ter na tional, re gional a com -

par a tive do mes tic stan dards. In par tic u lar, Malawi should ex pand the

gen eral def i ni tion of a child to 18, as well as re vise and in crease the min i -

mum ages of mar riage and of crim i nal re spon si bil ity, both of which are

sig nif i cantly low rel a tive to in ter na tional, re gional and emerg ing

comparative do mes tic stan dards.

CHILDHOOD UNDER MALAWIAN LAWS 97

Head, Chil dren and the Law Programme, the Af ri can Child Pol icy Fo rum; LLD Can di date, Uni -

ver sity of Pre to ria; Di ploma in Ad vanced stud ies in In ter na tional Hu man Rights and

Hu man i tar ian Law, Amer i can Uni ver sity; LLM, Uni ver sity of Min ne sota; LLM (Hu man Rights),

Uni ver sity of Nottingham; LLB & BA, Uni ver sity of the Witwatersrand.

*

IINTRODUCTION

All over the world, the le gal pro tec tion of chil dren is not an is sue that

states have to de bate about be cause there is a gen eral un der stand ing and ac -

cep tance that chil dren de serve spe cial care, at ten tion and pro tec tion. How

much le gal pro tec tion to give chil dren de pends on the con text in which chil -

dren live, and thus dif fers from state to state. This is where the in ter na tional

and re gional le gal frame works be come im por tant to guide states. Among the

many is sues on which there are vari a tions amongst states is the le gal un der -

stand ing of a child when it co mes to dif fer ent as pects of life. The prob lem

be gins with the gen eral def i ni tion of a child and ex tends to the cate gori sa tion

of min i mum ages of ca pac ity to do cer tain things or bear cer tain com pe ten -

cies, such as the min i mum ages of mar riage and of crim i nal re spon si bil ity. As

Olowu states, the adop tion of the Con ven tion on the Rights of the Child

(‘CRC’)1 by the Gen eral As sem bly of the United Na tions (‘UN’) in 1989 ‘sig -

nalled the be gin ning of an era of con crete ef forts by na tions of the mod ern

world to give le gal rec og ni tion and pro tec tion to the rights of chil dren’.2 The

CRC ‘brought about a par a digm shift in how we think of chil dren and how

we treat [them]’.3 Within the Af ri can re gion, this le gal rec og ni tion of chil -

dren’s rights was fur ther en hanced by the adop tion in 1990 of the Af ri can

Char ter on the Rights and Wel fare of the Child (‘Af ri can Chil dren’s Char -

ter’)4 by the then Or gani sa tion of Af ri can Un ion (‘OAU’), which was later

su per seded by the Af ri can Un ion (‘AU’). The ob li ga tions im posed by both

the CRC and the Af ri can Chil dren’s Char ter on states par ties in clude to re -

cog nise the rights, free doms and du ties en shrined in these trea ties by, among

other things, adopt ing leg is la tive and other mea sures to real ise these rights.5

The Af ri can Chil dren’s Char ter has been com mended for grant ing greater

pro tec tion to the rights of the child in some ar eas.6

In 1994, Ma lawi adopted a dem o cratic Con sti tu tion7 which, among its

98 (2012) MLJ VOL.6, ISSUE 1

1GA Res 44/25, an nex, 44 UN GAOR Supp (No 49) at 167, UN Doc A/44/49 (1989), en tered into

force on 2 Sep tem ber 1990.

2D Olowu ‘Pro tect ing chil dren’s rights in Af rica: A cri tique of the Af ri can Char ter on the Rights

and Wel fare of the Child’ (2002) 10(2) In ter na tional Jour nal of Chil dren’s Rights 127.

3BD Mezmur ‘The Af ri can Chil dren’s Char ter ver sus the UN Con ven tion on the Rights of the

Child: A zero-sum game?’ (2008) 23 SA Pub lic Law 1.

4OAU Doc CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990), en tered into force on 29 No vem ber 1999.

5Ar ti cle 1, ACRWC and art 4 of the CRC.

6See, eg, UNICEF Innocenti Re search Cen tre ‘Law re form and im ple men ta tion of the Con ven -

tion on the Rights of the Child’ (2007) 17, avail able at www.unicef-irc.org/pub li ca tions/pdf/

law_re form_crc_imp.pdf (ac cessed 1 Jan u ary 2012).

7Act No 20 of 1994.