Law Students Produce Children’s Guide to Bill of Rights

Have you ever wondered what rights are or why we have a constitution or even what human rights are?Well, wonder no more.

Final year law students from the Aristotle firm at the University of Namibia have come up with a children’s guide to the Namibian Bill of Rights.

According to the students, the guide was written to enable children to not only take an active role in the protection of their right, but to instil a culture of respect for human rights among youngsters.

The guide educates youngsters on matters such as what the Bill of Rights is and how it works. It also simplifies the bill, with interesting illustrations and explanations to make it easier for the average school going youngster to understand how to identify and deal with issues such as violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination.

According to the partners, the guide is mainly purposed at making young people aware of their rights, where to find and how to claim their rights in the event that they are violated.

It does not have all the rights in the Bill of Rights but reference is made to Chapter 3 of the Namibian Constitution, where all human rights are listed.

The Ombudsman of Namibia, Advocate John Walters, encouraged youngsters to start youth human rights clubs at their schools and engage in activities that will create human rights awareness in the community as well as highlight the importance of the Namibian Constitution.

The students are working on the guide to be distributed all over the country as well as have it available in Braille for the visually impaired.

“The partners involved in this project envisage an end far beyond this publication, it is their desire that the guide becomes accessible to every child in all four corners of the country as well as in Brail for the visually impaired,” the partners said.

The initiative forms part of final year LLB students’ Community Impact Assessment Project, under Unam’s Legal Aid Clinic, a non-profit association.

The association was established to prosecute and defend legal courses of actions on behalf of potential and actual litigants, through the instrumentality of final year law students, supervised by experienced lawyers.

Here are a few terms that will help you understand the bill of rights.

Constitution: A document describing the system of beliefs and laws by which a country, state, or organisation is governed. The Constitution of Namibia is the supreme law of this country.

Bill of Rights: A list of human rights which everybody has and is entitled to because they are human beings from birth. They cannot be taken away. Your human rights are found in chapter three of the Namibian Constitution.

Supreme law: The highest form of the law and all other laws as well as everyone has to be inline with the supreme law, which is the constitution in our country.

Official language: The country’s official language refers to the language used within its government.Fundamental human rights: The rights you have simply because you are human.

Fundamental freedoms: Fundamental freedoms are the powers or rights to act, and are also a set of legal protections in a legal system.

Ombudsman: is a person appointed to investigate individuals’ complaints against a company or organisation, especially a public authority.

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