ABSTRACT
The study examined the role of Human Rights institutions in the country in addressing the problem of child abuse.
The objective of this study is causes, types and effects of child abuse on the child, the family and the nation. The work is meant to draw closer attention on this increasing scourge and access measures of addressing to preserve the fundamental human rights of the child as entrenched under the Nigeria Child Right Act.
In the study, the researcher defined what child abuse is; the various forms of child abuse, and also identified some of the causes and consequences of child abuse as a reflection of the societal problem and its impact on the life of the child. The study also evaluated the extent of damages it does to the abused child and the Nigerian society. In order to gather relevant data and information on the subject matter, the researcher used the questionnaire as data collection instrument, which was administered on 200 respondents within the FCT which is the limit of the scope of the study. A self constructed questionnaire titled Child Abuse Questionnaire (CAQ) was administered on the students after validation. The instrument has construct validity co-efficient of 0.756 and reliability co-efficient of 0.95. The statistical technique that was used to analyse the data collected was Chi-Square distribution test. The result of the analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between poverty and economic deprivation and child abuse in Nigeria. Also the study revealed that child abuse is still very prevalent in Nigeria and also that religious and cultural influences contribute to child abuse in Nigeria.
The result revealed that the Rights institutions are not doing enough to arrest the problem of child abuse and that the child right act is not working in Nigeria.
