…CRR,WARDC urge immediate action

By Chioma Obinna
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and its partners in Nigeria, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) have strongly urged the government of Nigeria to take immediate steps to follow recommendations from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) and more aggressively address the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents in the country.

In a recent review, the committee criticised Nigeria for failing to take all of the necessary steps to prevent ongoing health issues among young people within the country, including widespread maternal mortality, unsafe abortion, and female genital mutilation.

Executive Director at WARDC, Mrs Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, a women’s rights organisation based in Lagos, said “Our young people suffer from high rates of unintended pregnancy, limited knowledge of HIV prevention, and pervasive sexual violence in schools, among numerous other serious health concerns. Yet there’s an alarming gap between the reproductive health services that the Nigerian government provides and adolescents’ health needs.”

According to the Legal Adviser and Regional Manager for the Africa Programme at the Center for Reproductive Rights, Elisa Slattery, the Nigerian government has ratified a number of major international and regional treaties which include protections for reproductive health, but lawmakers repeatedly refuse to take those obligations seriously.

“It is imperative that the government start to walk the walk and take immediate steps to implement these treaties. The health and lives of Nigerian young people depend on it.”

The CRC Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations closely follow the issues of concern raised by WARDC and the Center for Reproductive Rights in a joint shadow letter submitted to the committee in May.

They recommended that the government amend its constitution to “guarantee the right of the child to the best attainable state of physical and mental health as a constitutionally protected right.”

The committee noted that Nigeria’s 2010 budget only allocates 4 per cent of its annual budget to develop the health sector, when it committed to allocating at least 15 per cent. It urged the government to fulfill this commitment and further recommended that Nigeria adopt the National Health Bill which guarantees the primary health sector a “direct funding line.”

The committee expressed serious concern about the “continued high rate of infant, child and maternal mortality,” and the “strong correlation between access to health care (including pre-and post-natal care) and the level of education and income.” It strongly recommended that the government ensure free maternal and child health services in every state, and abolish user fees and take other measures to increase adolescent girls’ access to affordable healthcare services,” including guaranteeing them “free and easily accessible contraceptives.”

The committee also relied on the recommendations set out by the Committee on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which in 2008 took account of a joint shadow letter from WARDC and Center for Reproductive Rights calling on the government to consider reviewing and amending its abortion laws.

The CRC Committee said it was greatly concerned by the “remaining health challenges facing adolescents, such as abortion complications and deaths of girls as a result of unsafe abortions, the lack of access to information and services relating to reproductive health for adolescents, the very low percentage of adolescents who use condoms at their first sexual encounter, restrictive abortion law, the existence of user fees and the prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.”

They mandated the government to introduce sex education for boys and girls in the school curricula and strengthen awareness of HIV&AIDS prevention among adolescents.

To further promote adolescents’ rights, they  charged the government with urgently ensuring that every state prohibits marriage of children who are under 18 years, in compliance with the Child Rights Act, raises awareness about the “negative implications of early marriage for the girl child’s right to health, education and development,” and introduces legislation banning female genital mutilation.