Child Abuse and Neglect - by Bilkis Olagoke

Child abuse and neglect according to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is defined as "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in the death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm"

The issue of child abuse and neglect has now been recognized as a worldwide problem. Children are the most vulnerable people on the surface of the earth and they are frequently the defenseless victims of the most degrading abuses. Children are usually abused by someone in their immediate family circle. This can include parent, brothers or sisters, baby sitters or other family adults and in some cases strangers.

There are different forms of child abuse, they are:

• Child labour which includes street hawking, street begging, domestic servant and commercial sexual exploitation of children.
• Physical abuse/neglect includes striking, kicking, burning, or biting the child, or any action that result in physical impairment of the child. deny of eduction and medical health care
• Sexual abuse - examples are incest, rape, prostitution, paedophilia and sexual harassment
  
• Emotional abuse / neglect also known as psychological maltreatment includes spurning terrorizing, isolation denying emotional responsiveness among others

There are laws protecting the rights of children. for example in Nigeria we have The Nigerian Labour Act, Laws of the Federal Nigeria 1990 CAP 198, The criminal code act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 CAP 77, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child (1989).

Despite the laudable actions by countries to improve the lives of the children by passing legislation to protect them, there is a need for parents, guardians, teachers and adults in charge of children to do more in terms of protecting these children from various abuses.