LOCALISING CHILD RIGHTS IN POST-CONFLICT SETTINGS: A DOCTRINALANALYSIS OF BORNO STATE'S CHILD PROTECTION LAW, 2021

Abstract

Children in Borno State have endured prolonged armed conflict, displacement, and institutional breakdown, making effective legal protection both urgent and complex. In response, the Borno State Child Protection Law, 2021 was enacted to localise child-rights guarantees within this fragile context. However, questions remain as to whether the Law is constitutionally sound, harmonised with federal child-rights legislation, and capable of delivering meaningful protection in practice. This article examines the Law's normative coherence and implementation potential. Adopting a doctrinal (blackletter) research methodology, it analyses the statute against the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, the Child Rights Act 2003, and Nigeria's international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The analysis shows that the Law broadly aligns with constitutional and treaty standards and innovatively integrates Sharia and customary norms with universal child-rights principles, while incorporating conflict-sensitive measures such as prohibitions on child recruitment and mechanisms for emergency protection, care, and rehabilitation of displaced children. Nonetheless, the study identifies significant implementation challenges, including vague statutory provisions, plural-law tensions, weak institutional capacity, limited federal–state coordination, and reliance on unstable donor-driven financing, with insufficiently articulated safeguards for internally displaced children and children with disabilities. The article recommends targeted legislative clarification, institutional strengthening through specialised courts and trained child-welfare personnel, establishment of a ring-fenced Child Protection Fund, sustained engagement with religious and traditional leaders, and improved monitoring and independent oversight. It concludes that addressing these gaps is essential to transforming the Law from a formal legal framework into an effective protection mechanism and a replicable model for sub-national child-rights governance in post-conflict settings.