As children across the country mark the Children’s Day, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has called for their protection against violence.

In a statement by its Chief of Communication, Doune Porter, UNICEF called for urgent action to adopt the Child Rights Act across all Nigerian states.

The agency said a 2014 survey by the National Population Commission, with support from UNICEF and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that six out of ten Nigerian children experience at least one of these forms of violence before they reach 18.

“Each one of us is responsible for creating a world where children feel safe, protected and empowered to speak up for themselves,” said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, using Nigerian Children’s Day as an opportunity to highlight the prevalence of violence against children in the country and measures needed to address it.

UNICEF, which said millions of Nigerian children suffer some form of physical, emotional or sexual violence, noted that Nigeria has launched a Campaign to End Violence Against Children by 2030, which reinforces the call by President Muhammadu Buhari in September 2015 for an end to such violence.

While it hailed Nigeria for adopting the National Child Rights Act in 2003 to domesticate the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, it noted that some states have yet to domesticate the act.

According to it, so far, state-wide Child Rights Acts have been passed in 24 of the Nigeria’s 36 states, with Enugu being the most recent to enact the law in December 2016.

“We call on the state assemblies of the remaining 12 states to urgently pass Child Rights bills and on governors to sign those bills into law. We also call on governors of the 29 states who have not yet launched state-level campaigns to end violence against children to do so,” said Mohamed Fall.

“And even while we increase our commitments to protect children’s rights, we must work even harder to make these rights a reality for children in Nigeria.”