The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has organised a two-day media dialogue in Enugu, capital of Enugu State, with online publishers to discuss the Convention on Child Rights which came into force through the UN General Assembly’s resolution 44/20 of November 20, 1989.

The dialogue, which began today and ends tomorrow (Friday), has been put together by the Child Rights Information Bureau (RIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information, collaborating with UNICEF.

Participating in the dialogue are 15 selected publishers of online newspapers from different parts of the country and representatives of major conventional newspapers based in Enugu and Abuja, as well as some university lecturers.

A UNICEF Communication Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, kick-started the discussion by making a run-down of the contents of the Convention on the Child Rights, which, he said, countries of the world signed except the United States of America and Somalia.

According to Njoku, there are four key principles of the Child Rights Convention, including non-discrimination, best interest of the child, life, survival and development as well as respecting the views of the child.

He said that the provisions, which are universal and indivisible, are inter-dependent and inter-related.

Dr. Chikwendu Ogbonnaya, a public policy advocacy expert, also gave a lecture on ‘Social Responsibility and Public Interest in Online Journalism Practice: Defining a Public Policy for Online Journalism’.

Dr. Abigail Ogwezzy of the University of Lagos will tomorrow give a talk on ‘Perspectives of Children’s Rights in Current Online Journalism Practice in Nigeria’ while Akin Jimoh of UNICEF Nigeria will deliver a lecture on ‘Children’s Right and Online Journalism Practice in Nigeria: Setting an Agenda for Children’.

The publishers are expected to end the dialogue looking collectively at the scoping online opportunities for child rights advocacy as well as presenting group work.

The UNICEF Convention describes a child as every human below the age of 18 years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier even as it ask the stakeholders to respect the rights set forth in the convention.

These rights, the convention insists, should be conferred on each child without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parents’ or legal guardians’ race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other statues.

UNICEF’s Convention urges state to take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.

•Photo shows UNICEF Communication Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku.

Update news