By Mcloyd Chilangiza:
Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara has cited the enactment of laws as key to safeguarding children’s rights, especially in these days of climate change impacts.
She said this in Lilongwe Monday, when United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) led Malawians in commemorating World Children’s Day.
The event was held under the theme ‘Climate Crisis is A Child Rights Crisis’, with Unicef organising an interface between children and legislators at Parliament Building in Lilongwe.
“Besides the enactment of the Disaster Bill, there is a need for Parliament to table policies and legislation that would safeguard the specific rights of children, especially as regards climate change.
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“It is our responsibility, as leaders and custodians of contemporary governance systems, to heed their call to enact policies and legislations that help them mitigate the impacts of climate change, promote sustainability and empower community members to adapt to this evolving reality,” Gotani Hara said.
She then challenged parliamentarians to come up with laws that safeguard children’s rights.
“The climate crisis is a ‘threat multiplier’ for violence against children, exacerbating every challenge – from poverty to displacement and loss of education – that enables such violence to thrive.
“Children from poor families are even more vulnerable because they are less able to obtain access to key resources when natural disasters and crises occur. Therefore, we should play a role in addressing these issues,” Gotani Hara said.
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She also called for investments in climate-resilient and securely managed water and sanitation services.
Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Minister Jean Sendeza said the government is implementing a project which is promoting the construction of climatic-resilient structures in a bid to avoid the negative impacts of disasters.
“We, as a ministry, are looking at the issue of infrastructure such as bridges, schools and roads after they were damaged by Cyclone Freddy,” Sendeza said.
She said they are ensuring that the infrastructure is disaster resilient.
Unicef Country Representative Shadreck Omor hailed the country for embracing holistic approaches when addressing the negative impacts of climate change.
“Malawi is making a lot of progress in looking at issues of climate change. Last year, Parliament gazetted the Disaster Risk Management Act and this is a forward step towards mitigating climate change impacts,” Omor said.
One of the children, who also acted as Children’s Parliament Deputy Speaker, Shekinah Galuwapananji, said the interaction has sparked their hope that their problems would be addressed.
Malawi is ranked fifth on the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index.
