Core Advocacy Issues on the Children’s Bill 2021

Insert new PART XIII on Rights and Protections on children born via Assisted Reproductive
Technologies (ART)
 Include definition of intended parent, surrogacy in respect to ART and include protection of children born
as a result of assisted reproduction.
 Provide that an intended parent shall acquire all parental duties, rights, obligations and liabilities of the
parents of the child and penalize parents for abandonment of children born via ART
 Prohibit the preselection of a sex of a child born via assisted reproduction except to prevent, diagnose or
treat a sex-linked disorder or disease;
 Ensure that the health and well-being of children born through the application of ART shall be given
priority in all decisions.
 Legislate that the nationality of a child born to foreigners via assisted reproductive technologies shall
adopt the nationality of the intended parents.

Insert new PART V on Online Child Protection

 Include definition of internet, age-appropriate material and place greater safeguards on content that
children view online including provisions on verifiable parental consent
 Place penalties on website operators targeting children who display inappropriate content or who collect
personal information from children which may be used to identify a child’s location
 Require the operator of any website or online service directed to children that collects personal
information from children to provide notice on the website of what information is collected from children
by the operator, how the operator uses such information, the operators disclosure practices for such
information; to obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal
information from children.
 Prohibit conditioning a child’s participation in a game, the offering of a prize, or another activity on the
child disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in such activity;
 Require the operator of such a website or online service to establish and maintain reasonable procedures
to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected from children.
 Established a temporary Commission/Directorate to for the purpose of conducting a study under this
section regarding methods to help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on the
Internet.

Insert new Clause 30 on protections on intersex children

 `Include intersex definition which describes mixed anatomical a hormonal, or gonadal or chromosomal
patterns. Avoid describing intersex children in derogatory language.
 Ensure that all health facilities have qualified personnel and sufficient facilities and equipment to prevent,
correctly diagnose, treat and manage conditions affecting intersex children.
 Promote and facilitate research in connection with the prevention, diagnosis, management and treatment
of medical and reproductive conditions which affect intersex children.
 Establish a fund to cater for all medical-related interventions for intersex persons due to the high-cost
implications.
 Provide for the right of intersex children to an education and provide safeguards for their continued
education including policy provisions on limiting intersex school dropout.
 Permit intersex children to be registered as so and prohibit non-issuing of birth certificates on account of
an intersex sex.
 Prohibit non-consensual and non-emergency surgeries on intersex children which may affect their
reproductive health.
 Treat intersex children in danger of non-consensual surgeries as children in need of care and protection.
 Interpret provisions within wills and in the Succession Act referring to sons or daughters to include
intersex children
 Ensure that intersex children who are in conflict with the law are permitted to choose the gender of the
officer conducting a search on their bodies and are permitted to choose whether they would prefer to be
confined in boys or girls’ borstal institution.
 Permit children to consent on matters regarding their SRHR and avoid nullification of decisions made by
the child simply on account of the fact that the child is under the age of 18.

Insert new PART IX on Child Parents

 Include definition of child parent to mean a person who is under the age of eighteen years of age or below
and who is a parent to a child
 Include provisions for day care centers and provide that schools designate areas for breastfeeding of
infants to allow child parents to return to school and simultaneously care for their child.
 Prohibit discrimination on grounds of sex or pregnancy and that matters in schools concerning pregnant
children are dealt with in utmost privacy.
 Stipulate that a parent or guardian of a child parents shall not be discharged from their responsibilities
regarding the pregnant child
 Mandate government to ensure that teenage girls and children born to child parents are provided with
adequate nutrition
 Mandate county executive committees to put in place management plans and strategies for the delivery
of social services and child care support services to expectant children and child parents within the
County.
 Provides for adolescent-friendly reproductive health services and education which is age-appropriate,
non-judgmental, confidential, evidence-based and culturally sensitive including impact of early, unwanted
and rapid successive pregnancies, rape and post-rape care and referral and psychosocial support to child
victims of violence.
 Place responsibilities on government to ensure that pregnant teenagers are examined by health care
professionals.
 Place responsibilities on government to provide counselling services to pregnant children and to her
parents or guardians regarding the management of the pregnancy.
 Provide that children who drop out of schools as a result of pregnancy are readmitted unconditionally and
are allowed to join at the level at which she left prior to dropping out.
 Penalize basic education institutions who expel children or fail to readmit children as a result of
pregnancy.
 Mandate that the National Education Board to issue guidelines for the conditions for the re-admission,
reintegration and academic support of child parents into institutions of basic education which are not
discriminatory and are in the best interest of the child.
  Prohibit institutions of basic education from excluding a child from any program of the school or forcing
the child to attend different programs from those of her peers only for the reason of the child being
pregnant unless the exclusion is directed towards the child’s safety.
 Ensure that a child who falls pregnant while in school shall be given an opportunity to make up for any
missed classes or examinations in the case of pregnancy-related absences.
 Mandate the Cabinet Secretary responsible for labor and social protection to make regulations concerning
the promotion of parenting skills, especially in young parents and parents with very young children; family
stability and to improve family access to resources for assistance on child care.
 Include children who are sexually abused and who are born to child parents or as a result of sexual abuse
as children in need of care and protection.
 Treat children whose parents abuse drugs or alcohol including in pregnancy as children in need of care
and protection

Insert new PART XII on Prohibition of Child Marriage and Betrothal

 Prohit betrothal of children
 Mandate the Cabinet secretary to put in place measures and interventions to prevent child marriage
 Create Public awareness on the harmful effects of child marriage

Insert new clause 147 on Sexual Offences

 Provide for mandatory reporting by parents or teachers to the police where a child has been sexually
abused.
 Prohibit the adjudication of cases on sexual offences committed against children by chiefs or other
cultural leaders.
 Prohibit the withdrawal of a case by a parent of a child who has been sexually abused where the parent
has received monetary or any other compensation on behalf of the child by a perpetrator.
 Ensure that child abusers cannot claim child custody of children they beget as a result of defilement
 Bar Sexual offenders from working with children even where they disclose their history of sexual
offending.

Insert new clause 132 on Period poverty

 Provide for free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl registered and enrolled in a public basic
education institution and environmentally sound mechanisms for disposal of the sanitary towels.
 Provide for continuous education to demystify the cultural and religious stigma attached to menstruation.