Nigeria: YouthHubAfrica CRA Advocacy Makes Impact

YouthHubAfrica and members of the civil society coalition for the passage of the Child Rights Act (CRA) have called on the governor of Kebbi State, northwest Nigeria, to quickly sign a bill to domesticate the law in the state.

The Kebbi State House of Assembly recently passed the bill for a law to provide and protect the rights of a child in Kebbi State.

Nigeria, in 2003, adopted the CRA in line with the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. However, only 25 states have so far passed the CRA.

Nigeria operates a federal system of government, meaning laws passed by the National Assembly do not automatically become applicable in all of the country’s 36 states.

Each state legislature must domesticate the national law and make it applicable within its territory. Issues pertaining to children are also in the preserve of the constituent states.

With more than 23 million girls and women who were married as children, Nigeria has the largest number of child brides in Africa.

Since 2017, YouthHubAfrica, through its Child Right Bill Advocacy Project, has been pushing for the domestication of the CRA in states that have yet to domesticate the law.

The project, with support from Malala Fund and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), focuses on improving basic education, school enrolment, retention, and completion in Nigeria.

‘YouthHubafrica is pleased to have worked alongside several non-state actors to advocate for the passage of the CRA into law in Kebbi State and we call on the Kebbi State Governor to, without delay, sign this bill into law’, the organisation said in a statement to Development Diaries.

‘Kebbi State by this passage is poised to become the number 26 state in Nigeria to have domesticated the child rights law and we are hopeful that the remaining states in Nigeria will take a cue from Kebbi and accelerate the passage of the bill into law’.

Photo source: YouthHubAfrica

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