 Okay so my question today is does the child have any rights and obviously it's clear that I have a passion for children in a very funny way that's different from a lot of people here but I will start with what the UNICEF website has to say. Your child has a right to a safe, nurturing school environment that respects their dignity. I'm particularly talking about the rights of the child today because questions around what child rights have come up a lot and maybe parents and schools are not even fully aware of the rights that are clearly enunciated that all children have. The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that all children have the right to an education and protection from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse and interestingly bullying is no exception. Although designed for the safety and protection of children have to be provided for by adults and the government making a clear responsibility lie on the parents' school as well as the government. Although children and young people are covered under the Human Rights Act 1998 their rights are more clearly specified under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child known as UNCRC. Now people usually ask the question how do those those kind of conventions play out in Nigeria. Nigeria has ratified most of this international treaties and once you have ratified the treaty it's applicable in your country. Although neither specifically mentions bullying, bullying behavior does breach a number of the articles in both. So I'm saying alongside this both outline the responsibilities of adults to protect and safeguard children and young people from bullying behavior. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states has 54 articles setting standards in health care, education and legal civil and social services which cover four broad areas and these areas are survival rights, development rights, protection rights, participation rights and what is a right? A right is simply a basic need. It's not an entitlement or an expectation. It's a basic need that is expected children need to be protected from bullying behavior so that they can survive, so they can develop and participate in a fulfilling life and therefore we're declaring today that bullying is a bridge of children's rights. So how do we showcase this? Apart from the other rights stated we also have survival rights. What are survival rights? That's a right to survive and develop healthily. The impact of bullying behavior must be addressed in a way that meets the needs of those young people affected and involved and once again I say that adults share a responsibility to address any behavior that can harm the development of children. We need what do you need to be happy and healthy? The positive impact of health and relationships, supportive role models, inclusion, love and respect and all these are things that can be undermined by bullying behavior. So what is it that society we all need to do and what are we advocating for today? We need to teach our children how to value and promote a healthy sense of respect for themselves and others in order to reduce the risk of bullying behavior. One other right that children also have is development rights. They have the right to relax and play. An excluded child by bullying behavior has a harmful impact on development on their health and well-being. Once again as adults remember that rights of children can only be upheld by adults within them. We are responsible for shaping an inclusive culture where children or children can participate. Bullying and its impact can be detrimental to a child's capacity to learn and this right also highlights an adult's responsibility to take young people's views into account when making decisions that affect them. A child's right to education can be denied if they refuse to attend or are removed from school because of bullying behavior. Staff and parents have a responsibility to change behavior that is making a child feel unsafe. It's upon us to develop our to develop children's talents fully. The impact of bullying on self-esteem and aspirations can prevent young people from reaching their full potential. Children need to be heard and they have a right to be heard and so it's time today to call on all adults and more especially parents and adults with the duty of custody over children to listen to them and uphold their fundamental rights and I think that maybe we have found those points and ways that we're going to use for advocacy with the Lagos state government as suggested by Helen and the other advocate and we have a point. How many points are agenda we have agenda. What the lecture indeed. There was something she said that caught my interest it's all about values. You know I've said this thing before enforcing the right values it's charity begins from the home. The person being bullied most time no the person the person bullying the bully most times the product of his home will check out their home many of these children perhaps from broken home or from home where their parents don't pay attention to them or don't show good example or see how their parents talk down on house made or whatever and they grow up with this attitude and when they get to school if it's okay to inflate plain and look superior to others to them so it all boils down to values. We have to be careful about what we do around our children. Yes well I agree with that and I think it's really true. I still think that there's a part that is usually under under emphasized the fact that when you talk to people over time people always say they feel unheard. People really don't so when we're growing up was constant children are seen and not heard and so when people say when the kind of classifications you put about well how people that turn out to be bullies. Some of the people that are bullies that were bullied that bullied us or that grew up in regular good homes sometimes not been not knowing or knowing how to behave not knowing social skills because some people don't even realize that I'm bullying you just feel that like there was an advocate that mentioned I said but it was Helen that said so parents see that as a child studying up for himself and that's what we mean. The education the orientation is deep really and I'm glad there's a behavioral behavior is important. So the thing about rights that you've said and what caught my attention is the fact that if Nigeria has ratified these rights then why aren't we enforcing them? Look the fact that policemen can go into a school and with live ammunition and just start shooting students. Yeah so I mean that that's what we all we need to say. Apparently rights are trampled on on this part of the world so at some point we need to be start advocating for people's rights to be of help. Do you see because if you just go by just the rights that people humans have you know that alone would set a lot of boundaries and a lot of you know standards in place. All right Helen I'm sure. I would just bring it to your notice that do you know that there is actually a psychometric test that is used in the UK currently to determine the bully and the bully are. Please we need it. I remember when I was trying to there's a particular school in GRE that is quite known for the students being bullies and they called me in and I spoke to the you know the council and said look you know what we can solve this problem we can just administer this particular test. Oh yes great wow ooh ooh and within the next you know the next time oh we don't think we should administer it it's very sensitive at the moment blah blah and this and that so that died and it died because the parents were not ready to accept if the results came out if my child is the bully how am I going to take it. They were not looking at it from the point of this can help your system and you know the problem is that I'm not saying that schools are not doing the right thing some of them are really doing wonderful things sometimes it's actually the parents that make a lot of these schools do what they do absolutely I know that some schools they want the best for the children they do health checks they do this these are the same parents in their school that will go and petition them for doing the right thing for their children so I know that this whole semester thing has become a very very big issue but what I also don't want us to do is I don't want us to lump all the schools in the same category that we're lumping during college because there are some schools that are actually doing a lot oh yeah absolutely absolutely I agree with you you know I think there's something that we can do yeah in terms of you know when we're petitioning when we're going forward it has to take parents involvement school involvement government involvement but heavens hits something where if we can identify the schools that are doing it right we can learn from how they're doing it right and apply it um on a wider yeah so across board so if there are people already in this space doing it right then let's learn from them yeah which is what you know I was going to say about Helen that you know that thing you say about he'll pay is a pipe and it takes a tune that's it so until schools are ready to say no we do not accept this kind of behavior exactly please take your children away exactly until schools are able to make that stand that's it this thing will not stop that's it you know the educational system is beyond the school fees yes and say that this is our that's it they are proper to write yeah no so you see all these are not going to change yes if the educational system the owners of the system say no yes and that also now brings to the father okay how do you actually diversify your offering such with that parents so hold you to run something yes how do you push the education system anyway tellur wraps the conversation up after the break