Bello Alhassan, Kaduna
DAILY COURIER – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has advocated for justice to ensure all children, irrespective of their background and status, are served by the justice system in their best interest in accordance with international and national norms and standards.
The UN agency claimed that there are over 190,000 children held in per-trail status in the last five years across facilities in the country.
Dr. Tushar Rane, the Chief of UNICEF Maiduguri Field Office, disclosed this in Maiduguri on Wednesday, during a one-day workshop organised by the agency in collaboration with the Borno State Government, with the theme, “Reimagine Justice For Children Agenda”.
Rane, who said the meeting aimed to promote access to justice for children in conflict with the law, disclosed that in addition to safeguarding the rights and well-being of children, it is also critical for the security and development framework of the state.
“Over 70% of children in detention are held at pre-trial status and often lack access to diversion and non-custodial services for their reintegration.
“An efficient juvenile justice system for children in conflict with the law will guarantee age-appropriate services for children recognised or alleged to have committed crimes, especially for diversion and community-based reintegration programmes.
“Borno State can save the future generation and cut off the risk of associated children being misused in crimes and conflict situations,” he said.
He reiterated that the meeting signals a renewed effort of stakeholders coming together to enhance synergy and coordination to improve capacities and information-sharing to ensure access to justice for child survivors of violence, especially sexual violence and as a result, end the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of violence against children.
“Borno State Child Protection Law (CPL) provides a comprehensive legal framework for the protection of vulnerable children. The challenge for this august gathering is to develop initiatives and reforms that will indeed enforce the letters of the law by establishing institutions created by the CPL, including family courts, specialised police units, diversion and special correctional centres for children. Implementation of these structures remains challenging.
“UNICEF is committed to contributing to support the State Government in the implementation of the ‘Reimagine Justice for Children Agenda’, which seeks principally to protect children from detention, ensuring every child survivor has access to justice in a timely manner,” he added.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Barr. Abdullahi Hauwa, reiterated the State Government’s position to ensure that everybody in the state, including children, have access to justice.
“We want to have a proper juvenile justice system in which our children in the state will have access to justice in a less difficult manner.
“Justice and good governance go hand in hand and when there is good governance, you can’t take away justice from the equation. This is all about restructuring and rebuilding our justice system with emphasis on justice for our children and society at large,” Hauwa said.
