Amnesty urges protection of girl-child rights
By Ibrahim Kado
Amnesty International Nigeria has called on parents, guardians and all stakeholders to respect rights of girl-child towards ensuring their success in life.
Dooshima Tsee, media and communications manager for the organisation made the call at the commemoration of 2026 International Day of the Girl Child on Thursday in Yola.
She said the theme of 2026 globally focused on ending child marriage and expressed the need for the girl’s to understand their rights which need to be respected.
She said some of the girls children cannot finish school because of early marriage and other reasons.
According to her, Nigeria currently has the highest case of girl-child marriages across the world, and it’s really affecting them.
“When you have half of the population of the country that is not able to finish school, they are not able to maximize their potential.
“So this is something that Amnesty is very focused on making sure that girls are able to access all of the rights that they have”, she said.
She called on the participants to understand what their rights is to be able to push for those rights.
In her address, Rebecca Malgwi, resource person who created awareness on girls’ rights and the realities of everyday life, tasked the girls to actively participate.
She urged them to understand that they have every right to express themselves in school and anywhere they find themselves.
“They should be treated fairly, most especially in the homes, in our community as well as the society as a whole”, she said.
Malgwi further called on the government at all levels to come up with policies to be pushed for fairness when it comes to treating the girls.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 139 students drawn from nine schools participated in the event with the theme: Let Girls be Girls.
