Despite the progressive normative framework of the African Children’s Charter, litigation before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) remains underutilised, particularly in emerging and under-litigated areas such as girls’ rights. To address this gap, the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), convened a regional capacity-building workshop in November 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop brought together NGOs and individual lawyers from across Africa who are actively engaged in advancing children’s rights. The workshop was designed to strengthen participants’ technical capacity to identify, develop, and litigate communications under Article 44 of the African Children’s Charter, while also laying the foundation for a Litigants Group that will serve as a long-term hub for outreach, mentoring, peer exchange, and sustained engagement.

On behalf of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), Legal Officer Abdulmalik Bello facilitated a dedicated session on ‘the role of NGOs in advancing children’s rights through litigation’, drawing on practical experience to illustrate how civil society actors can strategically engage the ACERWC to secure redress for children. He also co-facilitated interactive sessions on ‘specific approaches to litigation – key lessons from practice’, ‘case identification and ripeness for litigation before the ACERWC’, and ‘ethical considerations in child rights litigation before the ACERWC’. These sessions equipped participants with critical analytical and practical tools to navigate the procedural, strategic, and ethical dimensions of litigating children’s rights at the regional level.

“This kind of convening is critical—not only for building technical skills, but for ensuring that children’s rights litigation before the ACERWC becomes deliberate, collaborative, and impactful rather than sporadic and isolated.” Abdulmalik Bello, Legal Officer (IHRDA)