The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has advised parents and guardians against violating the rights of children in the interest of peace and national development.
Dr Zakari Adam, the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Kaduna, gave the advice on Friday in Keffi, Nasarawa State in an interview with newsmen.
Adam, who spoke to newsmen at the end of the three-day capacity building for 30 participants (UNICEF partners) on Result- Based Management (RBM), said that parents and government must also prioritise children protection.
The training was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the National Orientation of Agency (NOA) in Niger state and partners from Nasarawa.
He said:”Parents and government at all levels should protect the rights of the children and citizens for societal development.
“The rights are their entitlements. Children are human beings and they are also entitled to these rights and they have to enjoy their rights.
“We should protect, respect and promote the rights of children in order to improve on their health and their standard of living.
“UNICEF is doing its best to ensure that a child or children enjoy their rights.
According to him, the aim of UNICEF is to achieve positive result for women and children through access to health facilities, good nutrition, education and other relevant social services required for their development.
He said that the aim of the training was to equip participants with skills to enable them achieve results places of their primary assignment in tackling the plight of women and children.
“The aim of the training is also to equip the participants with skills on how to apply result-based management into planning and reporting the programme implementation.
“It is all about the fact that what we should report should be result-focused.“
“We are here working together for years now, particularly to ensure that our partners working in various ministries, related to children rights, are trained and their capacities raised in terms of human rights based approach programming,” he said.
Adam said that UNICEF was also committed toward addressing challenges facing women and children in Nigeria to improve their health status and standard of living, hence the need for the training.
He urged parents to ensure that children were protected and not put under unnecessary violence, stressing that children were sent to school rather than being out of school.
NAN reports that participants from Nasarawa and Niger, drawn from different ministries in the two states, attended the training. which also include Mr Rabiu Musa, Communication Officer of UNICEF, Kaduna.
