Child Rights: NGO, Judges, Chart way forward for effective implementation in Kogi

A Non-Governmental Organization, Centre for women, youth and Community Action (NACWYCA) in partnership with Teens Educational Development and Information Initiative (TEDiiN), has held a two -day training session with Magistrates and High Court Judges in Kogi State, North Central Nigeria, on the practice direction for child rights arbitration at the family court designated for trial of Child Rights Offenders in the state.

 

According to the President and Chief Executive Officer of TEDiiN, the implementing partner of the USAID-Sponsored SCALE project, Elder Titus Alonge, the workshop aimed at reviewing the child rights law rules and order of procedures in the CRL Practice Direction to ensure effectiveness of the law, operational in the state to avoid procedural violation in the course of its implementation.

 

Alonge, said the legal document had been adjusted during the review meeting on the child rights law (CRL) Practice Direction to ensure effectiveness in the legal application of the law at the family Courts both at Magistrate and High Court level.

 

Justice Angelina Salihu, of Kogi State High Court, who stood in for Chief Judge of  Kogi state, Justice Josiah Majebi, said the criminal cases in child rights litigation in Kogi State, were majorly rape cases.

 

According to the state Chief Judge, lack of remand homes for children in conflict with the law, is a setback to the  implementation of the child rights law in the state and criminal justice administration with regards to child rights violation.

 

Justice Majebi, who made a surprise appearance at the meeting in spite of his earlier representation at the event said, “ I still have to be here in person even though my representative had already spoken on my behalf. I feel obliged to be part of the meeting, which is why I had to cut short my engagement to briefly interact with you participants in view of the propelling urge to safeguard the rights of our children, and that makes this event compelling to me and Kogi State Judiciary under my leadership.

 

“I will give all necessary support and assistance to this cause as appropriate. I’m happy and proud to be part of this auspicious event that would promote the course of Justice for the Juveniles as i urge everyone of us to sustain the tempo.”

 

Kogi State Attorney -General and Commissioner of

Justice, represented by Mr. Oyetunji Oyekaye, of the state ministry of Justice, said the Child Rights Act is an encompassing legal document concerned with child’s vulnerability and protection, accommodated under the administration of criminal Justice Law.

 

The state attorney general said despite all progresses attained in human rights protection in Nigeria, the country still lags behind in the implementation of international conventions on human rights, and stressed the need for greater commitment to international conventions on human rights.

 

Additional Family Courts

Kogi State has 9 family Courts in 7 zones in the state while the stakeholders agitate for creation of additional family Courts to complement the existing special courts for the Juveniles; even as the contentious issue of appropriate ministry where the state Child Rights Act ought to be domiciled remains unresolved.

 

According to the Officials of the state ministry of Women affairs at the workshop, the state child rights law is  presently domiciled with the state ministry of Justice instead of the ministry of women affairs as done in other states.

 

According to the rules and order of procedures encapsulated in the legal document, ” In every criminal proceeding in which a child is involved, the court shall ensure that words like “Conviction” and “Sentence” or other words offensive to the child are not used in the proceedings.”

 

Highpoint of the workshop is the review of the procedure for child adoption and fostering, where applicant’s for child adoption in the state, now must  apply to the family court rather than the ministry of women affairs, which previously received the application for child adoption, where as a child of Kogi State origin cannot be taken out of Kogi State for purposes of adoption without the consent of the family court, and an adopter of a child must reside in the state.