A four year-old-girl raped by her uncle;
a 10-year-old boy beaten to death by his father; yet another
heart-wrenching story of abuse. No day passes without similar stories in
the media. Many of us will sigh and turn the page, searching for the
financials, the latest corruption scandal, or the sports news. We seem
to have become desensitised to these horrors our children suffer.
The global call for children to be
protected from all forms of violence, in all settings was sounded on
this day in 1989, when the United Nations adopted the Convention on the
Rights of the Child. Africa reinforced this call to end violence, one
year later, when it adopted its own African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child. Nigeria readily signed up to both treaties in
1991, and in 2003, we passed our own national law – the Child’s Rights
Act – bringing in comprehensive protection for children from violence.
Paper commitments, however, are
meaningless without action and our children continue to suffer extreme
levels of physical, sexual and emotional violence. One in six children
(16.7 per cent) in Nigeria, according to the National Violence Against
Children Survey, conducted by the National Population Commission with
support from UNICEF and the US Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention, suffer such violence. By any measure, that is shocking,
horrific and, for Nigeria as a nation, an embarrassment.
One in four girls (25 per cent) and one in 10 boys (10 per cent) will
suffer sexual violence before they reach 18 years old; this year alone,
nine million of our children would have been subjected to rape and
sexual abuse. And they suffer in silence. They are prevented from
reaching out for help by shame, stigma and a lack of knowledge about
where to get help. Most worrying is that sexual violence is so
normalised amongst our children that many of them do not realise that what they suffering is wrong.
Before they have turned 18 years, half
of all of our children would have been whipped, intentionally burnt,
punched, kicked, hit or threatened with a weapon. These cannot be
dismissed as acts of discipline. These are acts of violence that have no
place in an upbringing that should enable our children to flourish.
Violence – sexual, physical and
emotional – is not confined to children who are poor or marginalised. It
does not just affect children in the North-East zone of the country who
are affected by the conflict there. It transcends wealth, location, and
family circumstance. It can happen to any child, anywhere. It can
happen to your son or daughter, your brother, sister, niece, nephew or
cousin, to your friend. Adults who suffered violence are significantly
more likely to use violence themselves.
Violence against children constrains our
development and costs us between two and eight per cent of our GDP. In
September this year, the UN included a target to end violence against
children in the Sustainable Development Goals, explicitly linking, for
the first time, a violence-free society for children to economic growth.
I was proud to speak at the launch of
the Year of Action to End Violence Against Children in September, at
which President Muhammadu Buhari personally called on each and every one
of us to take action. We have a moral obligation to act, a civic duty,
and a legal obligation.
I am proud to be the Goodwill Ambassador
for this campaign. If I can inspire even one person to take action – to
stop perpetrating violence; to protect children from violence; to make
children aware that they have a right to grow up free of violence; to
help a child speak out, and to show compassion and support when they do –
it would have been worthwhile.
You too can join this fight. It’s time to take action! Together, Let’s End Violence Against Children.
Prof Chidi Odinkalu, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission
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