Nigeria is moving to overhaul its child protection framework as justice sector stakeholders seek to close gaps in a law enacted more than two decades ago but now confronted with challenges its framers could hardly have anticipated.

The review of the Child Rights Act (CRA) 2003 is focused on strengthening the legal and enforcement mechanisms for protecting Nigerian children amid growing concerns over child labour, child marriage, insecurity, digital-age vulnerabilities and uneven implementation of the law across the country.

The three-day National Stakeholders’ Engagement on the Review and Amendment of the Child Rights Act, organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice in collaboration with UNICEF and International IDEA, brought together policymakers, legislators, judges, law enforcement agencies and civil society organisations to examine the effectiveness of the existing framework.

Opening the engagement, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, said the review must go beyond preserving rights in legislation to ensuring that Nigerian children actually enjoy those rights in their daily lives.

Represented by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jeddy-Agba, Fagbemi said the development of the Nigerian child was inseparable from the development of the country, stressing that child rights should be treated as a national development, security and human capital issue.

“Investment in the Nigerian child is an investment in the future workforce, leadership, innovation, peace and prosperity of our nation,” he said.

The AGF said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had placed human capital development, social inclusion and the well-being of Nigerians at the centre of its Renewed Hope Agenda, adding that protecting children from violence while ensuring access to education, healthcare and safe family environments was an investment in Nigeria’s future.

Co-Chair of the Review Committee, Justice Suzzette Nyesom-Wike, who represented the President of the Court of Appeal, urged participants to deploy their experience to produce a workable framework, assuring that the judiciary was prepared to play its part in strengthening child protection.

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, represented by Justice James Omotosho, said the passage of more than 20 years had exposed new realities requiring the law to be reassessed, including the impact of the digital age, insecurity, child labour and child marriage.

He noted that the continuing lack of uniform domestication and enforcement across the federation remained a major challenge, stressing that courts could only enforce protections contained in laws that had been properly domesticated and given practical effect.

According to him, the review should produce clearer legal definitions, stronger enforcement mechanisms, child-friendly court procedures and better coordination among the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, social welfare institutions as well as traditional and religious institutions.

The Federal High Court judge further stressed that effective child protection could not be achieved through legislation alone, arguing that children also required accessible courts, procedures capable of preventing further trauma and a judiciary adequately sensitised to their peculiar vulnerabilities.

Adding a child-centred perspective to the review, Speaker of the National Children Parliament, Miss Progress Umoh, said the environment in which Nigerian children were growing had changed considerably since the CRA was enacted.

She therefore challenged stakeholders to use the review to determine whether the existing law still adequately recognises and protects the child it was originally designed to serve.

The engagement consequently places the CRA at a critical point: 23 years after its enactment, stakeholders are now seeking to bring the country’s child protection framework in line with contemporary realities and bridge the gap between rights guaranteed by law and rights accessible to children in practice.