Child Protection Situation in Northeast Nigeria
Situation Analysis of women and children in Nigeria6 noted that children faced several obstacles to their health, well-being, and overall realization of their rights. Nigeria is also not on track to achieve the CP-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. As UNICEF asserted, “The protection of children from abuse, exploitation, and neglect is integral to their survival, growth, and development. The consequences of violation of a child’s right to protection include reduced life expectancy, poor physical and mental health, reduced access to education and other services, and homelessness. There is a strong link between child protection rights and all the other rights of the child. Often, the child experiencing abuse or exploitation later faces the problems of lack of birth registration, malnutrition and illness, lack of early stimulation, and reduced learning opportunities”.
Nigeria has taken some important steps toward promoting and protecting the rights of the child. One such step was the enactment of the Child Rights Act (CRA) No. 26 of 2003 – amended version (2013), which marked the domestication of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRA represents a watershed in the country’s legal jurisprudence as it articulates, inter alia, the protection rights of children, provides an implementation framework of key principles related to these rights, incorporates all existing laws pertaining to the rights of children (including the Children and Young Persons Act – CYPA), and specifies the responsibilities & obligations of government, parents & other authorities (UNICEF). The Child Rights Act also has set up the Family Court Division and the Child Justice Administration (CJA). It also provides for the prohibition of capital punishment, imprisonment, and corporal punishment of children, and the use of scientific tests for deciding paternity cases (UNICEF 2008, p44). Further to this, other relevant security and law enforcement agencies in the country, such as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) have specialized units on child trafficking. In addition to the Child Rights Act, the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement Administration Act (TIPPLEA) is a key piece of legislation for guaranteeing child protection rights in the country. However, in spite of all those measures put in place, little progress has been made on the level of actual protection of children in Nigeria from violence, abuse, and exploitation. It has been documented that the main factors that have undermined Nigeria’s effort to fulfill its child protection obligations include harmful customary laws and traditional practices. The situation analysis updates (2015) have disclosed the following child protection (CP) risks:
Child labor: Child labor was more prevalent in rural areas (32 percent) than in urban areas (21 percent). The likelihood of student laborers was 18 percent for children from rich households and 40 percent for those from poor households.
Street children: About 46% out of the 317 street children interviewed preferred to remain on the streets. An important component of street children is the Almajirai (Almajiri for singular) in some Muslim communities, where an Almajiri child is allowed to beggary. These practices include begging, denial of parental care (at the tender age of 4-11 years), poor learning conditions, denial of modern health care facilities, cruel/inhuman treatment, hawking, and acting as porters in marketplaces.
armful Practices: The main forms of harmful practices are child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). About 43 percent of girls are married before they turn 18 and 17 percent before they turn 15. Nigeria still has the third-highest absolute number of women and girls (19.9 million) who have undergone FGM.
Children in conflict environments: Nigeria is a conflict-prone country where localized violent conflict is rife. In these episodes of conflict, many children lost their lives, lost their parents or guardians, were left disabled, or were internally displaced as a direct result of violence.
Birth Registration: Article 7(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the registration of the child immediately after birth and guarantees the right of the child to a name and to acquire a nationality. Birth registration is the first legal acknowledgment of a child’s existence, and it is fundamental to the realization of a number of rights and practical needs, birth registration was 20% among children aged under one year, about 23 percent for children aged 1-3 years, and 25% for children aged 3-5 years.
Early/Child marriage: The largest number of child brides in Africa is from Nigeria: about 23 million girls and women were married as children while the drivers are complex. Child marriage most often occurs in poor, rural communities. The prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting (FG- M/C) among girls and women aged 15-49 years is lower than in many countries where the practice is carried out, however, Nigeria still has the third-highest absolute number of women and girls (19.9 million) who have undergone FGM/C. It is more commonly practiced in the south, driven by grandmothers and mothers-in-law aiming to conform to the tradition (UNFPA & UNICEF, 2015). The UN estimated around 1 in 4 girls and women, or 52 million worldwide, experienced female genital mutilation performed by health personnel pointing to an alarming trend in the medicalization of female genital mutilation8.
Violence Against Children: Violence against children (VAC) in Nigeria manifests mainly through physical violence, psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) & VAC remained extremely high as 95% of children aged 2-14 years reported physical or emotional violence with 34% severely punished physically and 61% of caregivers believed that physical punishment was necessary for raising their children (CDC & UNICEF, 2014).
Children without parental care: Children without parental care and many other causal factors have been associated with their categorization as orphan, vulnerable, & separated children (OVSC), particularly street children, trafficked children, unaccompanied children, and children in child-headed homes are at more risk.