Adopt laws on children's rights, UNICEF urges

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged the Nigerian government to take steps to domesticate international conventions on children’s rights and create the proper environment to protect those rights.

In a special message to mark the 16 June Day of the African Child, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Christian Voumard, congratulated the government for signing international protocols on children’s rights, UNICEF said in a statement on Sunday.

He added, however, that there was need now for those conventions to be domesticated by way of ratification, the statement said.

The international documents relating to the rights of children include the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). They are further complemented by the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. While Nigeria has signed these protocols, its parliament has not yet passed laws to make them operational.

Signatories are obliged to provide educational and health facilities for all children. In addition, children are to be protected from all forms of abuse, violence and exploitation while creating the environment for parents, the extended family and others who care for children to fulfill their responsibilities to the children.

Voumard said committed leadership by the Nigerian government had enabled its partnership with international organisations to achieve some notable results. These include the provision of Vitamin A supplement to over 70 percent of children under five years and the attainment of the 98 percent mark in households using iodized salt.

More children, in particular girls, he said, were starting and completing school; polio was on the verge of being eradicated; there was increased use of insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria; and a sustained awareness campaign was beginning to have impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS.

But significant challenges remained, Voumard said. Among these were the fact that at 5.6 percent prevalence, HIV/AIDS had reached epidemic proportions. There was also need to establish "child-friendly policies" and to devote more resources to ensure the survival, protection and development of children.

"A major challenge for Nigeria is the need to pass into law a Children’s Bill," said the statement.

More efforts were also required to improve school enrolment especially for girls, strengthen a weak primary health care system where acute shortages of drugs and equipment were the norm, and curtail the negative effects of malnutrition on children.