The Project continues to seek long-term remedies to social inequalities by representing children whose concerns are symptomatic of the plight of rural and impoverished communities throughout South Africa.  It acts to compel the state to honour its obligations to children. 
The Project has participated in various meetings dealing with the Children's Amendment Bill. It continues to engage in lobbying and law reform efforts and to work together with other NGOs -including the Education Rights Project at Wits University; University of Pretoria’s Child Litigation Project, Centre for Applied Legal Studies; the Children’s Institute at University of Cape Town; the Socio-Economic Rights Project at the Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape; Alliance for Children's Entitlement to Social Assistance (ACESS); and the Children’s Rights Centre in Durban.

Consonant with LRC’s commitment to international human rights standards, it is anticipated that the Project will ultimately apply for observer status with the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which will expand mechanisms, procedures and structures that may be utilised to protect and promote children’s rights.

Barriers to education 
Specifically, the Project uses the law to challenge barriers to education, including:

• Limitations placed on the access to food through the School Feeding Scheme
• Lack of transport to schools or safe passage to schools
• Under-resourced schools, inadequate infrastructure and oversized classes
• Discrimination against children who cannot afford school fees, uniforms or books
• Discriminatory and stigmatizing policies, attitudes and practices
• Inappropriate and illegal disciplinary measures

Non-registration of birth and its negative consequences on children

Birth registration is a fundamental to the realisation of human rights.  It not only gives a child a recognized legal existence and identity, but it opens the door to other rights such as access to health and education services, offers protection against discrimination and neglect and determines a child’s treatment within the justice system

Currently there is no express provision concerning the need for the implementation of an effective birth registration mechanism and process in South Africa.  Through the work of the LRC in cooperation with other institutions, it is anticipated that it will become obligatory to register children at birth and that failure on the part of the government to have adequate mechanisms in place to this end, will not be tolerated as a basis on which children can be prevented from accessing their rights. 

Inability to access to social welfare grants and the  impact of HIV/AIDS

In South Africa, there are an ever-increasing number of young children who are affected by HIV/AIDS through the death of one or both parents, through having to care for an ill parent or family member and/or through being infected themselves. Poor access to social welfare such as child support and foster care support grants is a formidable challenge to the well-being of these children. In a number of cases, these difficulties are a direct result of the fact that the growing reality of child-headed households is not catered for in the current system. In addition, systems are unable to respond timeously to the urgency of their circumstances.

Such children are also prone to discrimination, social exclusion, rejection and isolation; have increased nutritional demands and are more likely to be subjected to sexual exploitation, trafficking, hazardous labour and disinheritance. The LRC continues to take on cases with the potential to improve the circumstances that these children face.

The LRC has taken up issues dealing with the foster care placement, safety fees for children that are put in places of safety, custody and adoption of orphans. In a significant advancement for children rights, the Pretoria office of the LRC has engaged with the Department of Social Welfare and drafted an amendment to the Regulations under the Child Care Act, to streamline the process in terms of which social workers can place children in foster care.  The proposed regulation, which is due to be promulgated, will see an important distinction in the process where children (a high proportion of whom have been orphaned as a consequence of AIDS) can be placed in the foster care of members of the extended family, enabling the foster parent to access the appropriate social grant without delays.  However, where a child is sought to be placed under section 14(4)(aB) of the Act, a more lengthy procedure of evaluation is followed.  This would be in cases where the child has been neglected or abused.  The new draft amendment is proposed as an expedited procedure for children cared for by extended family members, which will also have to be registered with the Clerk of the Children's Court and not left as a purely voluntary arrangement that could result in further insecurity for the children. It will simplify and fast track the caring of AIDS orphans after the death of their biological parents and to ensure that they receive appropriate care.  Once promulgated, it will be necessary to generate an awareness of this procedure and provide the appropriate training for its smooth implementation.

The CRP has also had to tackle a number of matters relating to the registration and assessment of children's homes and ensuring their access to government grants. In addition, currently there is an absence of social security provisioning for children aged between 7 and 18 years.

Undocumented [refugee] minors and street children 

The Children’s Charter of South Africa, 1996, explicitly recommends that “children who are orphaned, abandoned, homeless, exiled or refugees have a right to be placed in safe and secure families”.  Refugees’ access to the Children’s Court in order to formalize their status as children in need of care, which would include formal foster placement, is marred with obstacles and delays.  The result is these children are left for indefinite period of time within informal foster placements that are not able to access foster care grants. 

The LRC has already identified a lacunae in the law, whereby unregistered children and foreign children are unable to access social welfare grants as they do not have an identity number that is recognisable through the required 13-digit barcode.  We have successfully challenged the Minister of Social Development to remove the reservation of child-support grants and care-dependency grants to South African citizens only.  It is obvious, therefore, that the social welfare issue also has a significant effect on foreign children residing in South Africa.

Violence and sexual abuse experienced by children

Within South Africa, the number of crimes reported against children in South Africa has reached alarming proportion.  Unacceptably high levels of violence particularly sexual violence, has an especially disproportionate impact on girl-children.  Rape is among the most prevalent crimes against children.  Violence against children and their sexual exploitation were the most common forms of abuse cited. 

Social development objectives of government are not only meant to be addressed through the payment of social grants to advance the rights of vulnerable children in South Africa, but also through a range of interventions where children are victim to or at risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation. These include the Children’s Court services. However, there is some concern about the quality of representation of minors in such matters as well as the quality of reports generated by social workers that are pivotal in such cases, which the CRP has had to confront.

Inefficiency in providing the necessary protection and support to children in terms of prevention of abuse, together with a lack of access to recourse and restitution after the abuse had been perpetrated, contribute significantly to the absence of personal security for children.  The Durban office is currently engaged in litigation concerning a six-year old girl who was severely and brutally raped by a neighbour and whose family continues to be subject to intimidation and threats by the accused, who was found not guilty.
Whilst corporal punishment has been prohibited in South African schools, there are still reports of its ongoing use.The Durban office is assisting a young girl to obtain the necessary educational and occupational therapy after she lost an eye as a result of corporal punishment at school. She will require surgery to have her full vision restored.  During the criminal trial, our client was intimidated by the proceedings and, due to inept prosecution, the teacher was acquitted.   The LRC is currently in the process of launching a damages claim against the educator and the Department of Education on the basis of vicarious liability

Children with disabilities 

The implementation of policies concerning children with disabilities are not always interpreted and applied uniformly or in the best interests of the child.
By way of illustration of how the LRC intends addressing the plight of children with disabilities, the following case serves as an example:  prior to the matric examinations in October 2004 the LRC was approached by the parents of a deaf learner who sought a concession of more time for her to write her final examinations, in light of her impairment.  The Education Department in KZN refused to allow her a concession of additional time on the basis that her excellent academic results contradicted her alleged disability. The LRC threatened the Department with urgent legal action should it not favourably consider and grant the concession.  The concession of 15 minute per hour was eventually granted shortly before the examination.  The effort in the matter was rewarded when the learner was given accolades for achieving five A’s and received an offer to do her articles at a leading firm of accountants.

In a separate matter, the Johannesburg office was approached at the end of March 2006 by the parents of blind and semi-blind learners from S’nethembe formerly Katlehong School for the Deaf and Blind which the school and Gauteng Education Department would no longer be catering for blind and semi-blind learners.  Many of the learners were living at the hostel attached to the school and accommodation for them in Katlehong in private homes proved difficult to find. In January 2006 when the school re-opened no alternative school had been found.  An urgent application in the High Court WLD was launched on 13 April 2006 and the court ordered Gauteng Education Department to enroll the affected learners at Filadelfia School and to provide them with accommodation at the hostel.