Group decries poor Child Rights Law implementation by Enugu Govt

An Enugu-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), New-Life Community Care Initiative, has decried the poor implementation of the Child Rights Law by the State Government.
The Executive Director of the group, Florence Ifeanyi-Aneke, made the remark at the opening of a three-day training workshop for Community Child Rights Implementation Committee members in Enugu on Thursday.
The Child Rights and Responsibility Act came into effect in 2016 in the state.
The essence of the Act is basically to protect, care and preserve the fundamental rights and responsibilities of every child in the state.
But Aneke argued that most people in the state were not aware of the law due to the laxity by the relevant authorities.
According to her, the level of awareness about the law is very low among members of the public.
She said that the NGO was organising the training to enlighten the Enugu people.
“It will interest you to know that even the participants here are not aware of the existence of the law.
“It is our hope that this training will help to bring the desired awareness for the people to know there is a child rights law in place.
“We are hoping that by the end of the programme, Enugu people will begin to appreciate our effort in leading the campaign for the implementation of the law,” Aneke said.
She said that the training was meant to acquaint the committee members “with the basic knowledge about the rights of the child, the prescribed penalty for whosoever flagrantly violates it”.
She further said that the committee was expected to see to the full protection of the rights of children in the selected communities.
Aneke promised that the organisation would jealously support the committee to succeed.
She said that the committee would be set up in Umabi and Eziama Idodo Communities, Nkanu East Local Government Areas of the  state.
She said that the committee would cover all the secondary schools in the  communities.
“Presently, we have engaged traditional rulers and religious leaders in two communities to end the incidences of Gender-based Violence against the rights of children,” she said.
She said that the communities were expected to refer cases of child rights abuse, which they could not resolve, to the committee for onward report to the state committee.
“We  will report such cases  to the  police and subsequently prosecute the culprit,” Aneke said.
A resource person at the training, Mrs Ebere Chikezie, blamed the poor implementation of the Act in the state on people’s ignorance about its existence.
Chikezie, who work as an  Executive Associate, Niger-Delta Budget Monitoring Group under the Child Rights Arm, said they were making effort to create the necessary awareness about the law through the programme.
A participant, Mrs Comfort Egbu, expressed delight over the training.
Egbu said: “I have leant that maltreating a child is bad and parents should treat children living with them equally.
“They told us that a child is not supposed to be abused and over laboured,” she said.