No fewer than twelve states in the country are yet to domesticate the child rights act enacted by the Federal Government in 2003. The Chief Legal Officer of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Plateau state, Mr Kiyenpiya Mahuyai, who disclosed this yesterday at the seventh session of the Peace Architecture Dialogue (PAD), a monthly forum organised by Search For Common Ground, gave the affected States to include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.” Mahuyai said Plateau State which domesticated the child right act in 2005 recently took another step when a high court judge was designated as a family court judge.
She said, “in that sense, we have a family court, we may not have a structure but the judge in her chambers can take up matters that affect children.
So that is a huge step forward for us in Plateau State.”
The Director, Child Welfare at the Plateau State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Gwamfa Kannap said since the domestication of the act, the state government have put up structures which include creating awareness and simplifying the law into booklets and distributing them to religious, traditional leaders and school proprietors.
Speaking Earlier the Programme Manager, Search for Common Ground in Jos, Lantana Abdullahi said the goal of the discussion was to find ways to ensure that Plateau State begins “to not only implement the child rights act, but that all penal status relating to violence and other offences against the child are vigorously applied, without fear or favour.
NATIONAL MIRROR
END
Be the first to comment