Search

This report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child contains observations of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) concerning the application of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Federation of Nigeria. The report's introduction asserts that the rule by decree of Nigeria's present military regime has serious implications for human rights, and that the most fundamental recommendation of any report seeking to further the interests of the rights of Nigerian children must be a return to democratic civilian rule. The report then presents observations and recommendations in the following areas: (1) the definition of a child; (2) criminal responsibility; (3) the practice of torture; (4) the use of corporal punishment as a punitive measure; (5) physical chastisement of the child in the home; (6) punishment on a gender discriminatory basis; (7) death penalty and life imprisonment; (8) summary execution; (9) arrest and detention; (10) special arbitrary detention measures; (11) detention in prison; (12) children in need of protection outside the familial environment; (13) administration of juvenile justice; and (14) de facto conditions for "Almajiris," a practice which consists of parents entrusting their children to strangers for religious teaching (these strangers then force the children to be beggars.) The report concludes with a summary of observations and recommendations by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child--Nigeria, in the following areas: positive factors, factors and difficulties impeding the implementation of the convention, principal subjects of concern, and suggestions and recommendations. (EV)