By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Children in the country have called of government at all levels to prioritise the passage of the Child Rights Act.
The children who spoke on Monday at the Save the Children International (SCI), Nigeria, media roundtable in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl 2022, said the call was necessary to ensure rights of children in the country.
Specifically, Miss Maryam Ahmed, SCI Youth Ambassador, said it has been 10 years since the Girl child Day was introduced yet not enough has been done.
“The first step that Nigeria should take is to prioritise the passage of the Child Rights Act into a national law.
“This is because the CRA is a comprehensive document that clearly identifies the rights of children and provides sanctions to anyone who compromises those rights.
“Having the CRA passed,financed and implemented will bind parents,guardians to ensure that the rights of children are fulfilled, including going to school.”
Speaking further, she urged government, CSOs, traditional and religious leaders, and other stakeholders to rise to the occasion of protecting the girl child.
Also speaking, Girl-Child Advocate Miss Khadija Badamassi ,said that investments in girls’ rights remain limited and girls continued to face many challenges to fulfilling their potential.
Badamassi said that girls with disabilities face additional barriers to accessing support and services.
She said that COVID-19 worsened existing burdens on girls around the world and took away important gains made over the last decade; worsening the issues around child early and forced marriage.
“Girls in my community face a lot when it comes to child early and forced marriage, child marriage has caused more harm than good in my society today.
“Child marriage violates children’s rights and places them at high risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse.”
Miss Madina Abdulkadir ,Member Reoresenting Dikwa Constituency ,Children Parliament and Chairman Committee on Child’s Participation ,said the girl child, just like the boy child has a right a safe and educated life and deserves to live a healthy life.
Abdulkadir who is also Girl-child Champion for SCI , therefore, called on the fovernment, stakeholders to raise awareness on the important role a girl child plays in the society by promoting.
She called for the ĺneed to promote a safe social media platforms to engage girls across all platforms and put an end to stigmatisation
She urged the government to support female leadership and create policies that would support girls and government should make our parents their partners in decision making process.
Save the Children (SCI)Nigeria, called on the Federal, States and Local Governments to develop and fund national action plans to end child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence against children.
Mr Amanuel Mamo,SCI Nigeria’s Director of Advocacy Campaigns ,Communication and Media , said SCI also called on the government to increase funding and efforts to address gender-based violence against girls, including through funding child protection in humanitarian crises.
He said that 10 years ago, governments and people working for children, gender equality and girls’ rights around the world agreed to dedicate one day every year to celebrate girls’ achievements and bring attention to the challenges they face.
“How far have we come since the first International Day of the Girl? Despite promises by world leaders, girls stand at the frontline of the world’s most pressing issues, and child marriage continues, all over the world.
” Before COVID-19, global estimates of the rate of child marriage was decreasing but the world was still a long way off meeting the Sustainable Development Goal deadline to end child marriage by 2030.
“The number of girls marrying each year was estimated to be around 12 million and 2 million of those girls were married before their 15th birthday.
“SCI conducted a new research to better understand how much conflict increases risk of child marriage and how many girls are affected.”
Mamo said the research revealed that around the world, 89.2 million adolescent girls currently live in conflict zones, almost one in five adolescent girls aged 10-17 years.
He said that these girls live with the heightened risks to their rights , physical and mental health that come with conflict, including child marriage.
He said, Nigeria also contributes to one of the highest number of child marriage and out of school children to the global caseload.
