Government has emphasized on the need to nationalize children’s Parliament as a way of tackling increasing child abuse cases.

Director of Child Affairs in the Ministry of Gender Community Development and Social Welfare, McKnight Kalanda said this over the weekend during the commemoration of the Day of the African Child held at Kabuthu Primary School in Lilongwe.

According to Kalanda, in districts where there are child parliaments, they have proven to be a strong tool in addressing challenges affecting children as they provide a platform for children to voice out their concerns while calling on authorities to take action.

He has since asked development partners to support government so that each and every district has a child parliament.

A Stakeholder in the child rights promotion, the Girls Activist Youth Organisation – GAYO, laments that children in the country continue to face rights violations citing increasing cases of child labour, trafficking and child prostitution among others.

National Executive Director for the organisation, Richard Batch has challenged government to ensure that it respects treaties and protocols on child protection.

Batch has among others implored on government to increase funding towards the education sector and align with the SADC protocol which demands members states to commit not less than 20 percent of the total national budget to education sector.