Discovering Mandela's Children

Abstract

This essay on Nelson Mandela is a reflection of my research as a Fulbright Scholar to identify the impact that Mandela had on children's rights in South Africa and around the world. It traces Mandela's legacy vis-à-vis children's rights from the Freedom Charter he co-authored in 1955 to the Republic of South Africa's Constitutions and international children's rights agreements. The essay frames these legal authorities within the lives of children in South Africa today. It was written specifically for a Nelson Mandela commemorative issue of Transition, which is published by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University (formerly the W.E.B. DuBois Institute), and is timed to be published one year after Mandela's passing.

Keywords: Nelson Mandela, Mandela, South Africa, Children's Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Constitution, Apartheid, Freedom Charter