The Child Rights Act 2003: The Rights, The Benefits.

Quite often we hear some teenagers (Teenagers! God help us) respond to their parents, “I know what I want; I am no longer a child. Please stop treating me like a child”. And more often than not we hear the parents retorting, “Keep quiet, you are still a child!” It is on that basis that I think it is more appropriate, in discussing the rights of the child, to first have an understanding of who a child is.

In line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Child’s Rights Act 2003 defines a child as a person who has not attained the age of 18. That means that any person from zero-year old to 17 years old is a child while a person 18 years and above is an adult. This definition, plausible as it is, is one major reason some states have refused to pass the Child’s Rights Law. Since Child’s Rights Act, in line with CRC, prohibits the betrothal and marriage of a child, some states see it as out of tune with their culture with respect to marriage to have someone as old as 15, 16, or 17 be defined as ‘a child’.

However, some states have passed the law but lowered the minimum age for the purposes of marriage. Some have put it at 16, that is, defining a child as anyone below the age of 16. So you see, within Nigeria, one who is a child in one state could be regarded as a marriageable adult in another state. That is the fallout from the concept of federalism which Nigeria professes. Majority of the states that have passed the child’s rights law have retained the international minimum age of 18. So, generally speaking, a child is any person under the age of 18 years, and we are taking that as the working definition here.

What are those rights protected under the Child’s Rights Act?

The Child’s Rights Act, first and foremost, has adopted all the fundamental human rights set out in the 1999 constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria and subsequent constitutions or amendments thereto as rights also guaranteed the children. This means, therefore, that the Act protects the fundamental human rights of the children. In addition, the Act also has specific rights specially provided and protected for the children. These rights include:

• Right to a name

• Right to survival and protection

• Right to dignity

• Right to parental care, protection and maintenance

• Right to free, compulsory and universal primary education

• Right to freedom from discrimination

• Right to private and family

• Right to freedom of movement

• Right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly

• Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion

• Right to leisure, recreation and cultural activities

• Right to health and health services

• Right of a child in need to special care and protection.

• Right of the unborn child to protection against harmful social and cultural practices

• Right not be imprisoned with the mother.

• Right to have his best interest considered paramount in any matter involving him.

• Right to protection against abuse and torture.

Some of these rights have provisos, and will be discussed in subsequent articles.

Why Child’s rights law?

The children are the future. They are the assurance of the continuity of the human society. Without children today there will be no society of humans tomorrow. Yet they are the most vulnerable members of the society. By their nature they deserve protection. As children they lack the physical, mental and emotional maturity required to face life. They, therefore, require special safeguards, care and protection. The children are unique by their nature and needs, and as such the normal rights guaranteed adults are observably not adequate to accommodate the special needs of children hence the child’s rights law.

The children are the future leaders, and the kind of leaders we would have in future would depend of the kind of children we have today. Abused, maltreated and neglected children become stunted emotionally and physically, and lack the confidence to face life. They are, therefore, deprived of the opportunity to develop their full potentials.

The child’s rights law makes for the provision of the right, conducive and enabling environment that would foster and produce well-rounded, happy and self-confident children. It sure would benefit the society to have such children as the future leaders.

The child’s rights will be discussed one after the other for a better understanding of them. This is very important because we all would benefit from effective implementation of the child’s rights laws. Effective implementation of any law, especially any on rights, requires not just the awareness of the law but also the understanding of the law more particularly by those in whose interest the law is made.

Understanding of the rights and the laws would also remove the skepticism that people have about the child’s rights, and the law protecting those rights. It would also benefit both those who are to implement or enforce the law, and assist all to respect the rights of the children, and not to breach them.
So welcome to the right world of children. Be our guest. 

By Ozioma Onyenweaku
 

Readers’ reactions are welcome.