14 Points on the Article – Every Child has a Right to Develop

Link to the Article – Every Child has a Right to Develop – https://progender.org/every-child-has-a-right-to-develop/https://progender.org/every-child-has-a-right-to-develop/

Link to the Laws cited in this Article – https://progender.org/laws-cited-in-the-article-every-child-has-a-right-to-develop/

1.       Every child has a right to development.

2.       Local, regional and international laws (CRC, CRA, ACHPR, ACRWC, ICESCR, and so on) have guaranteed the right of children to development.

3.       Increasing number of children and young persons use social media.¹

4.       Sex tapes and sex images make the African cybersphere unsafe for the African child. More so when it involves real people in real circumstances.

5.       An unsafe cybersphere is a derogation of the right of the African child to development.

6.       Asides the undesirable effects on African children generally. The rights of the children of the direct parties have been overwhelmingly impeded as well.

7.       Responsible journalism and safe dissemination of information is necessary.

8.       Social media platforms should take further steps to make their platforms safer for children.

9.       The Cs

          Consent, create, containment, contamination, continuous, compounding, compensation.

10.     A case for Strict Liability

          Rylands v Fletcher  

“The tort known as the rule in Rylands v Fletcher as established in this case is:

“A person who for his own purposes brings on his land and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep it in at his peril, and if he does not do so, is prima facie answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequences of its escape” ”²

11.     Khadija Ismayilova v. Azerbaijan 65286/13 57270/14

The privacy rights of the applicant guaranteed under Article 8 of the ECHR, were affirmed by the European Court of Human Rights.

12.     The sex tape epidemic has shown that there is need for special protection measures for the African woman and the African child.

13.     NGOs should co-operate with the Government, citizens and other stakeholders to create solutions to the problem.

14.     Equatorial Guinea like several African countries is a party to the CRC³, ICCPR⁴, ICESCR⁵, ACHPR⁶, ACRWC⁷, etc.

Thank you.

Stephanie Orji lawyers at Heptagon & Associates, a full service law firm in Abuja, Nigeria. She recently crafted a book for children and all rhyme lovers – Happy Children’s Read and Recite

23-November-2024.

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1. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/africa/news/2023-08/rise-in-social-media-usage-among-africa-s-young-people-raises-co.html , https://www.unicef.org/wca/node/2191 accessed on 18^th November, 2024. ↩︎
2. Cited in Ese, M., Law of Tort, Ikeja, Princeton Publishing Co., 2008, 379. ↩︎
3. Convention on the Rights of the Child – Wikipedia accessed on 23^rd November, 2024. ↩︎
4. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Wikipedia accessed on 23^rd November, 2024. ↩︎
5. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Wikipedia accessed on 23^rd November, 2024. ↩︎
6. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights | African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (au.int) accessed on 23^rd November, 2024. ↩︎
7. 36804-treaty-african_charter_on_rights_welfare_of_the_child.pdf (au.int) accessed on 23^rd November, 2024. ↩︎