FRAMEWORK ON THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN NIGERIA

Abstract

It is the duty of every government and society to protect the children. This is because the care, safety and education they receive determine the extent to which they will mature into useful citizens of the society. Nigeria assented to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and consequently transmuted the content provisions to the provisions of the Child Rights Act 2003, which emphasised ‘the best interest of the child’ is the interest aimed to be protected. It is against this background that the paper considered the meaning of the concept of a child, the instances of abuse and violations of the rights of the child, signs and symptoms of abuse as well as legal intervention by relevant authorities to protect children. The authors argued that the process of enforcement of the provisions of the Act has continued to be a barrier to the successful protection of the interest of children in Nigeria. The paper therefore maintained that the absence of official policy compelling States to domesticate the Act as well as indulgence in mass education will continue to operate as huge challenge to the realisation of the provisions of the Act on the one hand , and the best interest of the child on the other hand.