Last Change:
10/19/2026
THE CHILDREN’S CODE ACT, 2022
Original names of the law: THE CHILDREN’S CODE ACT, 2022
Year: 2022
Type: Domestic law
Rights Category: Health, Family life
Description
An Act to reform and consolidate the law relating to children; provide for parental responsibility, custody, maintenance, guardianship, foster care, adoption, care and protection of children; provide for the grant of legal aid to, and establish procedures for the treatment of, children in conflict with the law; provide for the making of social welfare reports in respect of a child in conflict with the law; establish diversion and alternative correctional programmes and promote the rehabilitation of a child in conflict with the law through programmes to facilitate restorative justice and compliance with laws; provide for the protection of a child victim and child witness in investigative and judicial processes; provide for the probation of a child in conflict with the law and provision of probation services; provide for the development of treatment programmes, early intervention services and programmes to combat crime and prevent further offending; limit the negative effects of confinement by minimising the impact of a finding of guilty on the family of a child in conflict with the law and facilitate the re integration of the child in conflict with the law into society; provide for the establishment of child approved centres and child reformatory centres; provide for the regulation of child care facilities; provide for child safeguarding; domesticate the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption and the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; repeal the Legitimacy Act, 1929, the Adoption Act, 1956, the Juveniles Act,1956 and the Affiliation and Maintenance of Children Act, 1995 and provide for matters connected with, or incidental to, the foregoing.
Selected provisions
19. A person shall not—
(a) subject a child to sexual abuse or sexual exploitation;
(b) use a child in prostitution;
(c) induce or coerce a child to engage in sexual activity; or
(d) expose a child to obscene or pornographic material.
15. A child with a disability has the right to be treated with
dignity and respect in accordance with the Persons with Disabilities
Act, 2012.
275. The Minister may, by statutory instrument, make
provision for —
(a) standards for the accommodation, staff and equipment
to be provided in a child care facility;
(b) the training of persons employed in a child care facility;
(c) the criteria to be applied to limit the number of children
who may be accommodated in a child care facility;
(d) the education and training of children in a child care facility;
(e) requirements as to arrangements for medical care,
including psychiatric and dental health and the
prevention of infectious and contagious diseases in a
child care facility;
(f) special care for children with disabilities and children with
chronic ailments in a child care facility;
(g) requirements as to the keeping of records and giving of
notices in respect of a child received in a child care
facility; and
(h) the conduct of inspections of a child care facility.