The Federal Government said yesterday that 34 of the 36 states of the federation have domesticated the Child Rights Act dealing with issues of child abuse, child labour, and forced marriage, among others, in Nigeria.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, while speaking at the 59th edition of the Ministerial Media Briefing at the Presidential Villa Abuja on Thursday said her ministry has been actively involved in the advocacy to ensure all states keyed into the initiative.
She said: “ I’m proud to say that today, we have 34 states that have domesticated both VAPP Acts and the Child Rights Act, as against nine and 12 when I assumed office.
“With aggressive advocacy across the states, all 36 states I went round and appealed to them. Most times, I even go into the House of Assembly to address the state House of Assembly with the permission of the speaker. I did that in Oyo. I remained there until they passed it. The law was passed in my presence in Oyo states.
“We’ve made progress on the domestication of Child Rights Acts, 2003. The CRA, when I assumed office, we had only 12 states that domesticated it. And without the Child Rights Act, we cannot achieve the education of the girl child.
“With the Act, the girl child will be in school admitted, retained up to completion, completion up to Senior secondary school. That is the minimum education, we are advocating for the girl child. Because if a girl can remain in school up to senior secondary school, we are sure that she has crossed the problem of early marriage.
She disclosed that as of 22nd November 2022 out of 11,053 reported gender-based violence, 401 ended in fatality, 33 perpetrators have been convicted, 592 cases have been closed, while 3,507 cases are still open.
“We have a total of 11, 053 cases of gender-based violence reported, fatal cases, 401, closed cases, 592, very sad and we had only 33 persons convicted for this deadly act and that is unacceptable and that is why we are calling on the justice system to act fast on cases of gender-based violence because justice delayed is justice denied,” Tallen stated.
