Resumen de Child's Rights and the Challenges of Educating the Girl-Child: Assessing the Contributions of UNICEF in Nigeria
Agaptus Nwozor, Blessing Okhillu
Nigeria domesticated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child through the enactment of the Child’s Rights Act (CRA) in 2003. The CRA contains elaborate provisions on the rights to be enjoyed by the Nigerian child. In spite of this legislation, the Nigerian child, especially the girl-child, is yet to fully enjoy these rights. The major forces that militate against the rights of the girl-child are the cultural and religious norms that are intrinsically embedded in the dominant patriarchal system prevalent in Nigeria, especially in northern Nigeria. These entrenched norms contribute to the marginalization and preclusion of the girl-child from accessing education. Using the lens of radical feminism in combination with human-rights based approach, this paper interrogates the challenges faced by the girl-child in accessing education and the interventionist role played by UNICEF in salvaging the situation. The paper finds that although the interventionist program of UNICEF, that is, the Nigeria Girls’ Education Project (NGEP), contributed in re-enrolling over one million out-of-school girls back to school, a lot needs to be done to salvage the girl-child from the entrenched structural alienation that deprives her of access to education.
