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Tracy Mutowekuziva
In Zimbabwe we have the right to chose a line of worship a belief or a religion . The only problem that arises is when some of the beliefs and religions infringe children`s rights. Usually the rights affected include the right to education, health and choice. These are usually determined by the culture in which the child was born in.
According to the constitution section 19 sub section 2b , every child has the right to shelter , basic nutrition , health care and social services. It is unfortunate that the provision of these rights are subject to a lot of factors including religion.

It is infringing the rights of a child if parents refuse to let their child be given medication or have an operation performed on them due to religious factors. In Zimbabwe year in year out there are problems with people in certain Apostolic sects who forbid their children from being vaccinated.

The biggest Apostolic sect has about people 1,8 milllion in Zimbabwe and the children the sect are about 1million, it is so painful that children die from very much curable diseases just because their parents did not believe in medicine but rather in “holy water”.

It also comes down to protection of children from neglect, maltreatment and abuse. Religion makes it very difficult for some rights to be protected. In some cultures girls are forced to marry olde men because “prophecy” said so.

The consent of the girl is not sought, as long as the parents agree the girl has to. This hinders progress of the country in a lot of ways because automatically the right to education is also infringed, there is no way the girl can continue with her education if she has been forced into marriage.

The government set a Legal Majority Age of 18years , which means girls can only marry or consent to sexual intercourse after attaining 18 years of age but this is not what is actually happening.

Girls are being forced to marry at 15 or 16 years and are being forced to drop out of school. One wonders where the pressure groups are when these things happen. Where is the government or Girl-Child Network when girls are being married off to men twice their father`s age?

The issue of religion children hinders from enjoying their full rights.There is a lot that needs to be taught to the society. Children must be allowed or given a chance to chose what they want to do with their lives.

The so called pressure groups and the government must not just write down policies but must see to it that they are implemented. Parents have to right to bring up their children in the religion of their choice but what happens if the religious beliefs hinder some of the child rights? Action is needed to make sure that children have rights regardless of what their parents believe in.

Pressure groups should do more, we appreciate their efforts but more is needed. We cannot applaud ourselves that we have many organisations that protect child rights and we also cannot be happy at the mere fact that our constitution has provisions set aside for protecting child rights.

We must only be proud when as a society we have children that can stand up for themselves in protecting their rights. We must only rest when there are no longer girls being forced into marriage, boys and girls being abused by their parents and guardians. These things do not necessarily require lots of money or aid . It must be made sure that those who bear the children are taking care of them and ensuring that their rights have been met.

We can copy what other countries have been doing, in Sudan there was a BBC World Service series of radio programmes aimed at raising awareness of issues around children rights. The programmes were broadcast in all languages which means in Zimbabwe there has to be messages packaged in Kalanga, Ndau, Chewa and other languages which are used in Zimbabwe but are usually shunned by broadcasting houses.