Representatives to revisit children's bill

Nigeria's House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to revisit the Child Rights Bill and reverse its decision last October to reject the bill on the grounds it offended certain cultural sensibilities. A motion by member Ita Enang, which was unanimously adopted, agreed that the lower chamber of parliament rescind the earlier decision to reject the bill and instead conduct a public hearing to enable it to determine what is best for the well being of the Nigerian child. In rejecting the bill last year the representatives had taken particular exception to a provision setting 18 years as the minimum age for marriage. This, they said, was incompatible with religious and cultural traditions in various parts of the country, where women especially, were given out in marriage at a younger age. Some Islamic groups also charged that the bill was particularly anti-Islamic and part of a "plot to destabilise our country through the United Nations’ covert campaign against Islam". But the action of the House of Representatives drew severe criticism from local and international humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which had made significant inputs towards preparing the draft bill. Nigeria was among the first countries to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the early 1990s, but has yet to pass it as a domestic law. Apart from deciding the revisit the bill, the representatives at Tuesday's sitting also passed into law the United Nations Convention on Women and Child Trafficking. The convention among other things obliges countries to set up comprehensive policies, programmes and other measures, not only to prevent but also to help victims of trafficking.