CHILDREN should know their rights and make extra effort to engage organisations that can educate them on how to exercise their constitutional rights, a youth activist has said. International Peace Youth Group (IPYG) country representative Ms Samantha Munetsi said this in an interview on the side lines of International Day of the African Child Commemoration in Hatfield, Harare yesterday.

The commemorations were organised by the IPYG in collaboration with the Heavenly Culture World Peace Restoration of Light (HWPL).

Both are non-governmental organisations that advocate world peace and the proliferation of its tenets among youths.

Young people and students of Fatima Zahra College, an Islamic school in Harare, attended the celebrations that ran under the theme, ‘Humanitarian action: Putting children’s rights first’.

Ms Munetsi highlighted the need and importance of supporting the African child. “The purpose of this event was to bring together different stakeholders to support our children and hear what they say,” she said.

“We are also advocating for Declaration for Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) to be adopted by the United Nations.

“Children must know their rights; that education does not come from our text books only so we have to take that extra step of engaging non-governmental organizations and youth organizations so that they know their rights,” she said.

HWPL country representative Mr Joel Canaan reiterated the importance of creating peaceful environments.

“We have written letters to the President, and we hope he writes back to us in support of the DPCW. If everyone co-operates with the DPCW, we will be a step closer to achieving peace in Africa” he said.

The international day of the African child is celebrated every year on the 16th of June in remembrance of South African school children who were massacred by the colonial apartheid government during the Soweto uprising in 1976.