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Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws

Child marriage is a union between two persons of which one or both of the parties is less than the age of 18. The practice or phenomenon of child marriage cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities from Africa to Asia, Europe and America. From the perspective of legislation and human...

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Main Author: Worugji, Nheoma Eme
Other Authors: Moult, Kelley
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Law 2019
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access_status_str Open Access
author Worugji, Nheoma Eme
author2 Moult, Kelley
author_browse Moult, Kelley
Worugji, Nheoma Eme
author_facet Moult, Kelley
Worugji, Nheoma Eme
author_sort Worugji, Nheoma Eme
collection Thesis
description Child marriage is a union between two persons of which one or both of the parties is less than the age of 18. The practice or phenomenon of child marriage cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities from Africa to Asia, Europe and America. From the perspective of legislation and human rights, it is a menace and a violation of the rights of the child. Unfortunately, the category of children adversely affected are the females and is associated with parents giving out their girl child who are less than 18 years of age in marriage to men who are far older than they are. Topmost on the list of drivers or reasons for perpetuating such practice is that when the girl child gets married at such an early age, the prospect of being promiscuous is taken away with no regard to the aftermath health implication of such action. Nigeria is one of the countries with a high prevalence of child marriage cutting across all ethnicities with major occurrences in the Northern part of the country. The Child Rights Act which was passed into law in Nigeria in 2003 expressly criminalises the practice and pegged the age for marriage at 18 in line with international standards and the African regional treaties. The Nigerian print media has also taken the cue to bring to the lime light issues of child rights violation and associated harmful practices. However, there seems to be an unseen discussion in relation to the role and influence of the media and its portrayal of the issue in the light of existing laws and solution required to address the surrounding issues. This is what this research sets out to explore. The objective is to investigate multiple debates and perspectives of child marriage as presented in Nigerian newspapers. The research method employed is document analysis and discourse analysis which will take the form of documentary research.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:07.122Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
publishDateSort 2019
publisher Department of Public Law
publisherStr Department of Public Law
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30427 Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws Worugji, Nheoma Eme Moult, Kelley Child marriage is a union between two persons of which one or both of the parties is less than the age of 18. The practice or phenomenon of child marriage cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities from Africa to Asia, Europe and America. From the perspective of legislation and human rights, it is a menace and a violation of the rights of the child. Unfortunately, the category of children adversely affected are the females and is associated with parents giving out their girl child who are less than 18 years of age in marriage to men who are far older than they are. Topmost on the list of drivers or reasons for perpetuating such practice is that when the girl child gets married at such an early age, the prospect of being promiscuous is taken away with no regard to the aftermath health implication of such action. Nigeria is one of the countries with a high prevalence of child marriage cutting across all ethnicities with major occurrences in the Northern part of the country. The Child Rights Act which was passed into law in Nigeria in 2003 expressly criminalises the practice and pegged the age for marriage at 18 in line with international standards and the African regional treaties. The Nigerian print media has also taken the cue to bring to the lime light issues of child rights violation and associated harmful practices. However, there seems to be an unseen discussion in relation to the role and influence of the media and its portrayal of the issue in the light of existing laws and solution required to address the surrounding issues. This is what this research sets out to explore. The objective is to investigate multiple debates and perspectives of child marriage as presented in Nigerian newspapers. The research method employed is document analysis and discourse analysis which will take the form of documentary research. 2019-08-02T08:16:28Z 2019-08-02T08:16:28Z 2018 2019-08-02T08:11:38Z Master Thesis Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30427 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law
spellingShingle Worugji, Nheoma Eme
Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws
title_full Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws
title_fullStr Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws
title_full_unstemmed Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws
title_short Media portrayal of Child marriage in Nigeria in the light of existing laws
title_sort media portrayal of child marriage in nigeria in the light of existing laws
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30427
work_keys_str_mv AT worugjinheomaeme mediaportrayalofchildmarriageinnigeriainthelightofexistinglaws