About the ACERWC

ACERWC: The guardian of African children’s rights

The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) is the African Union’s principal body mandated to monitor, protect, and advance children’s rights across the continent. As the highest regional accountability mechanism for children’s rights, the Committee ensures that States comply with their obligations under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the Charter).

The ACERWC is composed s of 11 independent experts—not government representatives—who are elected by the African Union to serve in their personal capacities. This independence is critical to the Committee’s role as a watchdog, enabling it to hold states accountable for failures to protect children’s rights without political interference.

Why it matters

Why the ACERWC matters

The ACERWC exists to address the distinct realities facing African children, including the impacts of armed conflict, harmful traditional practices, gender inequality, poverty, and systemic barriers to education and healthcare. The Charter provides an Africa-specific framework for children’s rights, and the ACERWC ensures these commitments translate into action.

What it does

What the ACERWC does

The Committee exercises three core functions:

1. Make Legal Decisions: The ACERWC functions as a quasi-judicial body. Civil society organizations may submit communications when a State violates children’s rights. The Committee issues authoritative decisions that require States to take corrective action.
2. Reviews State Compliance: Through periodic State Reporting, the Committee evaluates whether governments are implementing laws, policies, and programs in line with the Charter, and publicly questions States on gaps between legal commitments and lived realities.
3. Sets Normative Standards: The ACERWC issues General Comments, recommendations and guidance that clarify how states should interpret and apply the Charter to protect children’s rights, shaping laws and policy across the continent.

CRR and the ACERWC

The Center for Reproductive Rights at the ACERWC

The Center for Reproductive Rights is a leading legal and advocacy actor engaging with the ACERWC to advance adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR).

Through its observer status, the Center plays a critical role in ensuring that state accountability mechanisms meaningfully address the rights of adolescent girls. government accountability during State Reporting reviews. Our engagement ensures that ASRHR are not treated as abstract principles, but as enforceable rights grounded in the Charter and responsive to adolescents lived experiences.

Further, the Center makes submissions such as complementary reports, oral statements and contributions to ACERWC’s policy/advocacy documents, towards its advancement of adolescent SRHR across the content.

We do this by:

1. Advancing school re-entry for pregnant and adolescent mothers
2. Framing SRHR through the Charter’s Four General Principles
3. Strengthening the Civil Society Organization’s (CSO) Forum

School re-entry

1. Advancing school re-entry for pregnant and adolescent mothers

A core pillar of our work at the ACERWC is ensuring that pregnancy does not terminate a girl’s right to education.

• The Tanzania Landmark Decision: The Center, alongside its partners, secured a historic decision from the ACERWC that declared Tanzania’s expulsion of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers from school to be discriminatory and unlawful, affirming that such practices violate the Charter.
• Ongoing Advocacy: We don’t stop at the ruling. The Center continues to relentlessly advocate for the adoption and implementation of binding school re-entry policies that mandate schools to re-admit adolescent mothers without stigma or punitive conditions. We use the ACERWC platform to urge states, including Tanzania, to fully implement the Committee’s Decision.

SRHR and the Four General Principles

2. Framing SRHR through the Charter’s Four General Principles

The Center anchors adolescent SRHR within the Charter’s Four General Principles, reinforcing reproductive health as a fundamental children’s rights issue. Through our side-events, technical submissions and engagement with the Committee, we demonstrate that restrictions on adolescents’ access to reproductive health services violates these specific pillars:

• Non-Discrimination: Adolescents must not be denied reproductive health services based on age, gender, or other circumstances.
• Best Interests of the Child: Health policies must prioritize the child’s well-being over restrictive cultural, moral or religious norms.
• Right to Life, Survival, and Development: Denial of reproductive health services such as access to contraceptives directly impacts adolescent’s lives and futures.
• Child Participation: Adolescents have the right to be heard in decisions affecting their own bodies, health, and lives.

Strengthening the CSO Forum

3. Strengthening the Civil Society Organization’s (CSO) Forum

The CSO Forum, held ahead of ACERWC Ordinary Sessions, is a critical space for shaping the Committee’s agenda.

• Building a Movement: The Center plays a leadership role in this space, supporting the convening of civil society actors, thus fostering strategic alignment and amplifying collective advocacy at the continental level.

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