Violation of the Right to Education of Children in the Northern Region of Nigeria

The right of the child to education, which is protected by various national and international instruments, is being increasingly violated in the northern region of Nigeria. Insurgency, armed banditry, kidnapping, hostage-taking, and demand for ransom which are targeted at institutions of learning, have displaced many children and forced the closure of a sizeable number of schools at various levels in that region. Families are compelled by the persisting and real fear of violence and death to withdraw their children from schools. The paper explores the effect of violence targeted at schools in the northern region of Nigeria on the right to education and argues that the Nigerian Government’s failure to guarantee the safety of the children and institutions of learning in the region constitutes a non-fulfilment of the Government’s enforceable obligation to protect the children’s right to education. © 2023, Adonis and Abbey Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.