THE IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR ON THE RIGHTS OF THE NIGERIAN CHILD

Abstract

The legal rights of the Nigerian child are contained in various municipal laws and international instruments. These laws are based on certain fundamental principles relating to the promotion of human survival, prevention of harm, promotion and sustenance of human dignity and the enhancement of human development. A major set-back against ensuring the implementation of the child’s rights in Nigeria today rests grossly on the fact that most of the rights contained in the Child’s Rights Act are expressed in chapter II of the Constitution, which chapter, by constitutional interpretation, are described as non-justiciable rights. By this development, it appears that both the Child’s Rights Act and Chapter II of the Constitution are opposed to each, even on the same objective they both should be pursuing. This work pursues to highlight the debilitating impact of child labour, which as a trend has sustained in expanding the challenging path our jurisprudence takes towards attaining full implementation of child rights for the benefit of the Nigerian child, in relation to their health, education, future well-being and normal development. As part of its recommendations, this work highlights the need for further amendment of chapter II of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in clearly re-enacting these social-economic rights, which clearly should enhance the development of the child, to be not only fundamental but justiciable and actionable. By this work, it is also recommended that programmes and policies be clearly crafted and implemented to directly mitigate poverty by promoting food security, education, health, nutrition, clean water and sanitation. There must be purposeful efforts at supporting parents and communities in caring for and protecting children from the exploits of child labour and neglect. It is further recommended that human rights education and sensitization centric to child’s rights and child’s labour must be harmonized, re-energized and strengthened from international, regional and national levels, even down to the community level.