Some stakeholders have supported the proposed review of the 2003 Child Rights Act to bolster child protection in Nigeria and make the law firm.

The stakeholders spoke in an interview in Abuja on Tuesday. They said that the proposed review of the CRA was long overdue.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, had recently announced plans to review the CRA to bolster child protection and development initiatives. This development comes on the heels of her visit to an orphanage in the Gwagwalada area council in Abuja, where she reaffirmed the government’s commitment to safeguarding the welfare of Nigerian children.

Meanwhile, MacJohn Nwobiala, the co-chairman of the National Child Rights Implementation Committee, said the provision of the 2003 CRA needed to align with the recent United Nations global conventions.

He said that the provision of the CRA should be made to align with UN statutes, protocols and agreements as they relate to protecting children in different circumstances and promoting their rights.

Mr Nwobiala said various provisions of the law should be made to be efficient and effective in terms of implementation. He advocated for stringent penalties for those who perpetrate crimes, abuse and exploitation of children in the country.

He called for the infusion of adequate preventive measures into the law, adding that the status and coordinating roles of NCRIC should be reflected in the CRA and extended to the state and local government levels.

He said that special budget lines should be provided for the NCRIC to enable it to perform its functions effectively and to develop country reports periodically as required by the UN conventions.

Also, Kolawole Olatosimi, the national coordinator of the Child and Youth Protection Foundation, called for harmonisation of the CRA by states domesticating the law.

According to Mr Olatosimi, states that have domesticated the CRA have some differences, and it will be good to have these differences considered and harmonised.

He also called for the review of the provisions of the CRA to make them more adaptable to diverse cultural and religious contexts while maintaining child protection standards.

Mr Olatosimi also called for enforcement of the CRA, stressing that weak enforcement of existing provisions leads to limited impacts, such as the prevalence of child marriage, child labour, abuse, and harmful traditional practices.

He also mentioned that the CRA set the minimum age of marriage at 18, in accordance with the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child.

(NAN)