Nigeria fails its own anti-child-marriage laws – rights group

A campaign group has accused the Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately enforce its own laws to prevent early marriage, in a report released on Monday.

“It is disturbing that almost two decades after the Child Rights Act was passed, Nigerian girls are still being forced into child marriages,” Human Rights Watch’s Director for Africa Mausi Segun said.

The government has not responded to the report’s criticism.

Looking at Kano state in the predominantly Muslim north and lmo state in the mostly Christian south, the human rights watchdog said it found that married girls in both states were denied their fundamental rights to education, a safe place to live and freedom from violence.

Human Rights Watch is demanding action from the country’s national and regional authorities to bring the country in line with its own constitution, as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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