Child Rights Act 2023 and the Protection of Children against Trafficking

Abstract

Human trafficking is a horrendous criminal activity with unfathomable dimensions. Whether for children or adults, it is a gross violation of human rights. It is a modern form of slavery and indeed deprives the trafficked of their human rights, particularly fundamental freedom. Every country in the world is faced with this challenge of human trafficking, though the scale may be higher in some countries than in others. All efforts at the international, regional, and national levels have not been so fruitful. Unfortunately, women and children are the most trafficked, and they suffer all forms of exploitation, including sexual exploitation, child labour, street hawking, domestic service, and street begging, among others. This article examines this global menace of child trafficking, particularly in Nigeria, and the protection accorded such children under the Nigerian Child Rights Act 2003, which is a Nigerian legislation enacted to tackle issues dealing specifically and comprehensively with child rights, such as child trafficking. The doctrinal method is adopted, and information is obtained from primary and secondary sources. The article found that despite the efforts made in Nigeria, which include the elaborate provisions in the CRA to protect the child and to tackle this teething problem, child trafficking, whether offline or online, is still very rife and constitutes a severe problem in Nigeria, just as in other parts of the globe. It also found that the CRA, which has various implementation challenges, has done little or nothing to bring about positive change in that direction. However, the article concludes that efforts must first be made to ensure that all the States in Nigeria adopt the CRA, while those that have adopted the Act should bring traffickers to book based on the provisions of the Act.