THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF CHILDREN IN NIGERIA AND THE CHILD-CENTERED APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT

Nigeria is one of the UN-member states that signed the Convention on the Declaration of Human Rights as well as the Convention on the Rights of a Child. This led to the adoption of the Child’s Right Act. The Child’s Rights Act 2003 was adopted to enhance the protection of children’s rights in Nigeria. Though not all the states in Nigeria have adopted the Act into their legislation, the violation of this Act is persistent in Occurrence. The current trend, however, is the paradigm shift to a child-centered approach to development. This is an approach that recognizes the child’s need in policy actions and government decisions. This approach is to enable achievement of the sustainable development goals in consideration of childhood as a stage of the human development cycle. It is, therefore, a concern as to how a nation that has continuously violated and failed in implementation of the Child’s Right Act can follow the trend of recognizing the need of children in policy formation for sustainable development.