The United Nations International Children Fund (UNICEF) with support from the EUROPEAN UNION, has commenced a 3-day training of Shariah Court Judges from across Kaduna State and the Police on the Kaduna State Child Welfare and Protection Law.
Professor Muhammad Tabiu, facilitator at the workshop, said their main objective is to see that the Police in Kaduna, especially those who are in charge of issues relating to gender and children, and the Shariah Court Judges are fully acquainted with the law and know how to implement it.
According to him,” We are on a workshop on Kaduna State Child Welfare and Protection Law which was enacted in 2018. This is the first time that training is being provided to Shariah Court Judges and police together, who are one of the key actors in implementing this law.
“So we started by looking at the content of this law and this will continue over the next 3 days looking into the rights given to the children under this law, what are the limits and ways of implementation of those rights, because sometimes people misunderstand, they think rights means you can just do anything.”This law has defined these rights very clearly and placed the responsibility for guiding children on their parents and other leaders of the community.”
He said they would also be talking on the kind of protection that this law gives to children against various practices and ways children are harmed, how the police and the courts can intervene ànd even sanction people who harm children.
“Principally what are the institutions that are going to implement these laws? The police have a big role to play. The police are not going to approach cases of children in the same way they are going to approach the cases of adults. The primary thing, according to this law, is the interest of the child, and always the interest of the child coincides with the interest of society because society now wants to prepare children who would be the future leaders that would take us out of our problems of today so that those problems would disappear tomorrow. We have a lot of hope for children so their interest is our interest.”
“The same thing with the courts.The courts are not going to sit in a very formal and technical way and take up the case of children in the way they do, those of others in the regular courts. The law has provided procedures and approaches which make the court friendly to children, whether they are children in conflict with the law or children who themselves are in trouble and have been affected by the actions of other people and the court needs to come to their rescue. So these are the things we are covering in this workshop,’ he said.
” Definitely if the law is going to be implemented as being said in the workshop,all these problems,obstacles would be tackled in shaa Allahu,” a participant observed.
Another participant from Shariah Court Makarfi, Malam Mukhtar Abubakar said the workshop was timely and would be useful to the judges in their administration of justice because the
the religion of Islam made emphasis on the protection of the right of children.
Speaking earlier at the workshop,representative of UNICEF Field Office Kaduna, Dr Wilfred Mamah told the participants thar they were gathered as critical stakeholders to contribute in the area of child protection and requested them to give their best during the 3 day training by making meaningful contributions so that children would be adequately protected through the administration of child justice in Kaduna State.
Chairperson of Justice for Children Forum Kaduna State,Justice Dariuis Kobo,gave an overview of the the Kaduna State Child Welfare and Protection Law 2018, and called on participants and stakeholders to ensure that children in Kaduna State have access to the law.
