Public hearings on the Children’s Bill were held in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on 11 October 2005. The following organisations made submissions:
- Commission on Gender Equality (virginity testing)
- South African Human Rights Commission (virginity testing)
- Thembisile Toyiya (virginity testing)
- Girl's Net Alfred Nzo Club (preventing forced marriages of young girls)
- SA Child Welfare (definition of a child in need of care and protection)
- Johannesburg Child and Family Welfare (girl child’s right to consent to adoption of her baby)
- Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape (legal representation for children in court)
- University of Cape Town Legal Aid Clinic and Lawyers for Human Rights (protection of foreign children)
- Childline and Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (child protection register)
- Bryant Greenbaum (compensation for victims of crime)
For a full list of all the submissions presented on the day, please see the programme for hearings, and for copies of submissions not listed above, please visit the Parliamentary Monitoring Group website.
The NCOP deliberations concentrated on a few key debates. These included virginity testing and age of consent for medical treatment. For more information on these key debates, please see the following documents:
- Progress Update Oct 2005
- Aids Law Project submission (age of consent to medical treatment)
- Children's Rights Centre submission (age of consent to medical treatment)
- Children's Institute fact sheet on ages of consent
- Children's Institute discussion paper on virginity testing