Day of the African Child 2020
On June 16, 2020, Basic Rights Counsel Initiative marked the Day of the African Child with the theme: “Access to a Child Friendly Justice System”.
In celebration of this day, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Abuja in collaboration with UNICEF organized an online parley with policy makers on the theme: Promoting Access to Child Friendly Justice System in Africa Our Principal Counsel of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI), James Ibor was a panelist in this online parley held via zoom webinar where he spoke on the issue at hand.
Children have rights, needs and interest; they are entitled by law to participate in formal and informal decision making processes that impact their lives directly or indirectly. They should be recognized as right holders.
In recent times, there has been disturbing incidences where children are subjected to inhuman treatment, detained in tiny and overcrowded cells alongside with adults. Children have also been objects of harsh judgments which has led some children to be scarred for life and some others developing mental disorders. These has necessitated the greater need for access to a child friendly justice system.
There are a number of factors constraining the access to a Child Friendly Justice System, ranging from an inefficient Family Court system where cases go on for as long as five years; an inefficient Social Welfare system where referrals and interventions are not coordinated and are awfully slow; an inefficient children police units where cases do not get investigated and cases risk being compromised; difficulty in admitting who a child is and who is not as birth registration is not universal; lack of inter-agency coordination and corporation, and lack of scientific investigation necessary to corroborate evidence of most vulnerable survivors of sexual assault.
There is, therefore, a call on Policy Makers, State and Non-State Actors to intervene in ensuring that these factors constraining access to Child Friendly Justice System are addressed. They should ensure the monitoring of all correctional centres, borstals and remand homes to identify children or juveniles who ought not to be incarcerated or who could get justice through non-custodial measures and release them to families or appropriate caregivers; fund and ensure oversight on the expenditures of Ministries of Social Welfare Services and Police children unit, ensuring services are provided always; establish full and functional Family Court both at the High Court and Magistrate Court levels in every Judicial Division, sitting daily and on weekends if the need arises, in all the 25 states that have so far enacted the Child Rights Law; immediately rehabilitate and fully reintegrate all the children released and facilitate the release of the children still being held in Custodial Centre’s across the Country; institutionalize data collection (birth and death registration), data analyses as well as monitoring and evaluation; and impose and ensure sanctions on non-performing officers.
Also, on the 17th of June, 2020, James Ibor was a Panelist in the online conference organized by Project Alert on Violence against Women on the theme: An Epidemic within the Pandemic: Responding to sexual Violence in Nigeria, what needs to be done? He emphasized the need for States that has adapted the Child Rights Act and the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act to implement it to end Violence against children & women and States yet to adapt these very important legislations to do so as a commitment to end violence against women and children.
He was on Hit FM and Sparkling FM to speak on the activities to mark the 2020 Day of the African Child. Opportunities to secure the future of our children are rare and should be invested in. Let’s work together to invest in the future of our children and young people by promoting an access to a child friendly justice system in Africa as well as in Nigeria.