Youth finding freedom through their rights

Occasionally, teenagers are faced with challenges about their rights and freedom. This is connected to their age and environment they live in. At this age, teens face challenges in making decisions that directly affect their lives. Lydia Mahoro a student at FAWE Girls Secondary School admits that the change in behavior during teenage affects the way they perceive their freedoms and rights. “Of course there is a change in conduct linked to our stages of development. It may either be good or bad, depending on an individual and the society they live in,” Mahoro said. Besides environment, others believe every youth has the same rights and freedom irrespective of where they live or what they do. Austin Nduwayezu 17, is an S.5 student at Lycee de Kigali Secondary School, he say’s that, “Youth whether in school or not have the same rights.” Although others understand the true meaning of their rights and freedom, there are those who misunderstand this concept and fall victim to peer pressure and its influences. Nduwayezu noted that there are some students mostly in S.5 and S.6 who, “pretend to have more privileges than others.” This he said is a misunderstanding of their rights. According to the Minister of Gender and Family promotion, Jeanne d’ Arc Mujawamariya, parents have the first responsibility of making children understand their rights and freedom. “Parents must ensure that children understand their rights in order to avoid any form of violation,” Mujawamariya said. “When children go wrong with their rights, it implies that they never understood the correct meaning of their rights,” she explained. As a result, a lot of efforts have been put in place to ensure that children take part in reducing abuse and violations of their rights. One good example is the annual Children’s Summits, a unique aspect of the efforts of Rwanda’s children. Ends