Child Rights: Committee set to harmonise child protection laws

The National Child Rights Implementation Committee has expressed readiness to push for the harmonisation of the provision of the Child Rights Convention 1989 and the Child Rights Act.

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The Co-Chair of the committee, Dr MacJohn Nwobiala, said this while speaking with the Newsmen in Abuja after reviewing activities of the 8th quarterly meeting of NCRIC, which focused on the objective of writing periodic reports on the rights of the child.

He explained that the idea was to further protect and promote the rights of the Nigerian child, which had always been abused.

According to report, Nigeria is one of the 196 countries that has so far ratified the Child Rights Convention as of October 2015 and is expected to submit periodic reports to the United Nations Committee on Children’s Rights.

According to Nwobiala, Nigeria had always defaulted in writing periodic reports on the protection and promotion of the rights of children in the country.

He said the 8th quarterly meeting of the committee was the second of its kind, and that it focuses on compiling the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th periodic reports about the protection and promotion of the rights of children in the country.

Nwobiala added, “Today’s meeting is the 8th quarterly meeting of the National Child Rights Implementation Committee. It is an important meeting and the second meeting where we are focusing on the production, or you may say, writing of Nigeria’s 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Periodic report.

“For several years, Nigeria has been on default, and we see the production of this combined report as something that is very important, not just for the children of Nigerians but also for the image of the country.

“Nigeria had signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Union Convention and Child Charter on the Rights of the African Child.

“We feel that this defaulting does not go well with the country’s reputation, it is not proper, and it is not fair for us to continue to default, so today’s meeting focused on the production of the reports.

“Today we took a general overview of the report and then we went into specifics, we looked at the methodology for producing the reports because the reports have to take into consideration the input from all stakeholders.

“These stakeholders include the children themselves, States Child Rights Committees, ministries of education, health, and justice and other key federal offices like the National Bureau of Statistics, National Population Commission and NGOs.

“We looked at the methodology used in gathering this report; we also looked at the time frame, work plan in times of timeliness and distribution of responsibilities.”

He revealed that the committee already had a draft work plan for the year 2024 and urged members to brace up to the responsibilities.

Nwabiola however called on government, private sector, NGOs, parents and teachers, to unite and work as a team, to protect the rights of children, noting that children are from God and their rights must be protected.

PUNCH/Wumi