29/09/2026
23 YEARS LATER: SHAPING A STRONGER CHILD RIGHTS FRAMEWORK FOR NIGERIA
Twenty-three years after the enactment of Nigeria’s Child Rights Act, 2003, the law is undergoing a comprehensive review led by the Federal Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with UNICEF, International IDEA, Gender Mobile Initiative, SOS Village, World Bank, JRI and WARDC.
Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI) has been part of this process from the technical review stage, bringing our experience in girls’ education, gender equality, safeguarding and institutional accountability to the provisions relating to children’s right to education.
With support from Malala Fund, GMI has worked to strengthen legal protections to ensure that no child particularly an adolescent girl is denied or excluded from education because of pregnancy, childbirth, marriage, disability or other circumstances that should not determine a child's right to learn.
At the recent National Stakeholder Engagement involving stakeholders from all 36 States, GMI’s Executive Lead, Senior Programs Officer and Partnerships & Compliance Lead represented the organisation in the thematic review of the education provisions, presenting and facilitating discussions on strengthening these protections within the draft.
We are proud to have contributed to a process that can shape the legal framework governing children's right to education for years to come.
But the work does not end with a stronger draft.
GMI is committed to stewarding these critical education provisions through the remaining stages of legislative reform, until they are enacted and ultimately translated into practice.
We are grateful to Malala Fund for supporting GMI to contribute meaningfully to this important process and for keeping girls’ right to education at the centre of legislative reform.
The review of the Child Rights Act is an opportunity to ensure that Nigeria’s child rights framework responds to the realities children face today and that no girl loses her right to education because of the circumstances she faces.
We are proud to be part of shaping that future.