The United Nations provided an important point of reference for the Namibian liberation
movement long before Independence. The Charter of the United Nations proclaimed
already in 1945 "the respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of
peoples". The UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and
Peoples, contained in the General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960
referred to this principle as much as the Resolution on Namibia CM/Res.1055 (XLIV), passed
by the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity decades later.
2
Shortly after
Independence Namibia became an enthusiastic member of the United Nations, and
embraced quickly a plethora of international treaties and conventions,
3
amongst others the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Namibia signed and ratified
the UNCRC on 26 and 30 September 1990 respectively. Following the World Summit for
Children, New York 29-30 September 1990, the Namibian government established an Inter
Ministerial Policy Committee, tasked to draft a National Programme of Action for Children of
Namibia (NPA) and to “consider steps to implement the Convention on the Rights of the
Child.”4
One should think that by now Namibia would have achieved a full implementation
of most of the standards emanating from the convention. The current state of affairs is
however mixed. Today, twenty three years later, notwithstanding some improvements of
the situation of the child, two primordial milestones have not been reached, i.e. the
establishment of (a) a child (juvenile) justice system, and (b) a child care and protection
system.5