Stephanie Linus Daily

Tag: Human Rights

  • It’s The Day of the African Child

    In the past 25 years, June 16 every year is celebrated as the Day of the African Child in memory of hundreds of innocent South African children who were massacred on the 16th of June 1976 by the then South African police.

    Every year, we celebrate this day with different themes based on issues that concern children. The theme of this year’s celebration is very dear to me: Accelerating our collective effort to end child marriage in Africa. It’s one of the issues my movie ‘DRY‘ addresses, and something I have been very passionate about for many years.

    Child marriage is defined as a marital union with a person under the age of 18years. Child marriage is a fundamental violation of human right, it leads to life time disadvantage and deprivation. Many girls are married off by their parents without their free and full consent. Most times they are married off to men old enough to be their fathers or grand fathers as 3rd or 4th wives.

    Child marriage is condemned because the child is still growing and parts of her body and reproductive organs especially are not fully developed. The child is not psychologically matured to run a home; it denies the child the right to basic and qualitative education, deny them the opportunity to gain vocational and life skills , the child is exposed to health risk due to early pregnancy, child bearing and motherhood. It marks an abrupt transition into sexual relations without consent which is rape, sexual violence and abuse.

    The child remains timid due to age difference, not able to make choices, develops low self esteem, self worth and low self confidence. Child marriage is a complex issue that is driven by a lot of factors in different society. It has a devastating and long term effect on the health, education, psychological, emotional mental physical development and future of the girl child.

    Irrespective of the laws condemning child marriage as violation of the rights of the girl child, it is still practiced in our country. The Child Right Act of 2003 sets the national legal minimum age of marriage at 18years some states are yet to adhere.

    Report has it that 43% of girls in Nigeria are married off before their 18th birthday, 17% are married off before they turn 15. The prevalence of child marriage varies widely from one zone to the other, with figures as high as 76% in the North West zone.(UNFPA 2012,UNICEF SWCR 2013 )

    You’d be surprised to note that in Lagos state where people of all Nigerian tribes reside, child marriage is still being practiced in some local governments and communities. Action is needed to prevent thousands of girls from being married out before age of 18.

    On this day of the African child, I urge us all to contribute our quota in stopping this act for good. Its our collective responsibility.

  • 2014 International Human Rights Day: Thoughts To Reflect On

    Today marks another International Human Rights Day in commemoration of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 66 years ago. This day is observed annually on 10 December, to highlight the fundamental rights that all people are entitled to as a global community.

    As a country, we’ve come a long way with regards to human rights, although, there is still much more to be done. Some years back, we could not speak against wrong actions by our leaders for fear of being thrown into jail. But it is much different now.

    However, we still have many issues to grapple with.

    • Around 15 million girls are forced into child marriage around the world every year. One in three girls in the developing world are married by their 18th birthday, increasing their risk of isolation and violence, and limiting their chance to have an education.
    • Every 90 seconds, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths are preventable, but due to gender-based discrimination many women are not given the proper education or care they need.
    • There are millions of children living in poverty around the world today. According to Unicef, 22,000 children worldwide die each day due to poverty.
    • An estimated 27 million people are currently enslaved in the human trafficking trade globally.

    Nigeria plays a huge part of these shocking statistics and its time we paid more attention to these issues.

    The theme for 2014, “Human Rights 365“, is a reminder that everyone is entitled to basic rights with the same ideals and values – all year round. I’d like to add to this by saying the promotion of Human Rights should be everyone’s responsibility. Show more love and care to that child who is not yours, give someone an education, respect other people’s opinions…

    I’d like to end with the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who said in a message today: “On Human Rights Day we speak out. We declare that human rights are for all of us, all the time: whoever we are and wherever we are from; no matter our class, our opinions, our sexual orientation.”