AHG/ST. 4 (XVI) Rev. 1 DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS AND WELFARE OF THE AFRICAN CHILD The Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Sixteenth Ordinary Session of Monrovia, Liberia from 17 to 20 July 1979, Considering the provisions of the Charter of the OAU affirming the responsibility of Member States to harness the natural and human resources of the continent for the total advancement of the peoples in all spheres of human endeavors; Recalling various United Nations pronouncements, especially the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child and resolution 1/31/169 of the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming 1979 as the International Year of the Child; Conscious of the appeal by the said resolution for increased national, regional and international actions aimed at guaranteeing the rights and promoting the welfare of the Child; Determined to implement at national, sub-regional and regional levels and together with the national and international organizations the programmes undertaken to promote child welfare by providing facilities in the fields of education, medical care, nutrition and other basic services; Convinced of the need for Member States to take effective measures such as the development of simple and appropriate technologies in order to curb unnecessary child labor; Aware of the deep concern of African States about the future of African children as inheritors and keepers of African cultural heritage; Bearing in mind that the welfare of the African Child is inextricably bound up with that of its parents and other members of its family, especially the mother;