African Child

A PRESENTATION BY ISAIAH OPUENE TO COMMEMORATE THIS YEARS DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD.

THEME: “25 Years after the Adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage in Africa”

INTRODUCTION

The Day of the African Child is commemorated every year on June 16 by the member states of the African Union. During the 23rd Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in April 2014, the committee identified and adopted the theme for the Day of the African Child 2015 as, “25 Years after the Adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child marriage in Africa.” To celebrate the day, member states are to address the obstacles in eliminating child marriages as well as renew their commitments to put an end to it.

Child marriage, generally understood as the “marriage of girls below the age of 18 years”, is prevalent in Nigeria and Africa in general. The United Nations Population Facts, 2011 identified Nigeria as one of the countries in Africa with the highest percentage of women married before attaining the age of 18; with corresponding high Total Fertility Rates. According to the 2014 UNICEF State of the World Children, child marriage before 18 is highest and common in Africa. It is 57 per cent in West and Central Africa, 52 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 59 per cent in Nigeria.

CHILD RIGHTS ACT (CRA)

Nigeria is a partner to several international and regional treaties preventing child marriages, including the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage (1964); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, its Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Charter).

Compelled to fulfill its...