A consultation workshop on the publication of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) was held at the Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel on May 16, 2008.

The workshop was organized by APAP. APAP organized it after it prepared a CD-Rom containing the Amharic versions of the CRC and the ACRWC. APAP also compiled petitions from all the regions, including the city administrations of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. The petitions, of course, pleaded that children be given due focus in the legal system of the country by translating and enacting the CRC and the ACRWC in the Negarit Gazette.

The participants were welcomed by Wro Kidist Alemu, APAP’s Executive Director. In her welcoming remark, Wro Kidist noted that the fact that the two documents have not as yet been domesticated by Ethiopia has made it difficult to have them enforced. Further elaborating on that, she added that for any legal instrument to be officially recognized by all concerned, including the judiciary, it has to at first be published in the Negarit Gazette.

The participants comprised 14 MPs and other stakeholders drawn from various parts of the country. They discussed at length the ways and means that the two documents could be published in the Negarit Gazette—as recommended. Finally, they said that the translations should be submitted to the Parliament through the appropriate channel for further deliberation.