One might argue that in fact, there is so much more avoidance, generally of all matters related to adolescence, than various other areas of consideration. Often, adolescents are treated as younger children, failing to, of course, differentiate between children who are still fully dependent on their parents for absolutely everything.
The starting point of this consideration is unavoidably, the rights of a child. Many African parents take the view that children’s rights is one of those oblique and perhaps even senseless areas of human rights for purposes of advocacy. I have heard people ask why a child needs rights when they are financially and socially dependent on their parents. To this end, childhood is treated as a means to an end: a way towards adulthood. It is almost assumed that adulthood is the state to aspire to. For many, it is difficult to appreciate that children, no matter how young, from the time that they are outside of their mother’s bodies, in particular, are humans, who, as a matter of fact, have rights.
