UNICEF urges states to pass child rights law

Seeks assistance of the media

STATE governments still dragging their feet on the Child Rights Law have been admonished to as a matter of urgency, wake up from their slumber as the passage and implementation of the law would go a long way in protecting children against violence.

Violence often inflicted on children which include rape, kidnapping, battering and exploitation to mention but a few, the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) opined, would be reduced if not totally wiped out of Nigeria as soon as the Child Rights Law is allowed to see the light of day.

Although 24 out of the 36 states in the country are said to have passed the law, the implementation, the UNICEF observed, has continued to take more time than expected.

The observation wason Thursday made at a media parley on Child Justice Administration organised by the UNICEF D-Field Office Bauchi in collaboration with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Bauchi. The workshop which took place in Kano State, was attended by journalists from print organizations in the 10 states that make up the D-Field office of the UNICEF, as well as representatives of the Child Protection Network (CPN) within the axis.

The Communications Officer of the UNICEF Bauchi office, Samuel Kaalu who spoke on the UNICEF’s role in promoting child protection, urged media practitioners to be at the vanguard of advocating for the implementation of the Child Rights Law in Nigeria.

The need for media partners to “advocate for the protection of children’s rights to help meet their needs and to expand opportunities for them to meet their potentials,” he said, can no longer be overemphasised.

Emphasising that UNICEF alone cannot succeed in its quests to put smiles on the faces of the children by ensuring the immediate implementation of the law, journalists, he said, must desist from being onlookers and get involved in child protection issues.

He averred that for all form of “violence” and “exploitations” irrespective of the physical status to vanish from the society, children in conflict with the law must as well be given the needed attention.

“The protection of children is a universal development imperative integral to human progress. UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most disadvantage children,” he added.

Participants also unanimously agreed that members of the Fourth Estate of the realm should embark on aggressive advocacy to persuade state lagging behind to pass the law.

They also spoke on the need for the media and the Child Protection Network which are currently existing in seven out of the 10 states that make up the D-Field office, to work hand in hand to assisting children.