In a report released on Monday, an advocacy organization accused Nigerian authorities of failing to fully police their own rules to prevent early marriage. “It is concerning that nearly two decades after the Underage Rights Act was enacted, Nigerian girls are still being coerced into child marriages,” said Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch’s Africa Director. The government has remained silent in the face of the report’s criticism. The human rights watchdog found that married girls in both Kano state in the largely Muslim north and lmo state in the predominantly Christian south were denied their fundamental rights to education, a safe place to live, and freedom from violence. Human Rights Watch has called on national and regional governments to enforce the country’s constitution, which incorporates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children.Image Credit:internet
