Introduction: Toward social justice for children and youth in East Africa

In East Africa, despite having established the right of every child to education, an adolescent girl is excluded from school once she is found to be pregnant. In prisons, young children are virtually incarcerated in constrained care spaces by virtue of the fact that their mothers are imprisoned. Meanwhile, a court rules that a child who is not in fact an orphan should be adopted by foreigners simply because the foreigners are perceived as having more (financial) resources.
These examples, drawn from some of the empirical studies in this special issue on social justice for children in East Africa, demonstrate the persistent vulnerability of children and youth and the undermining of their rights and wellbeing.
Moreover, [...]