Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, to investigate the problem of 13.2 million children out of school in Nigeria.
In a petition, SERAP asked the ICC to investigate whether the problem of out-of-school children in the country and the failure of the authorities over the years to address it amount to violence against children and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the ICC.
In the petition dated July 19, 2019 and signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization urged Bensouda to push for those suspected to be responsible for this problem, including current and former presidents and state governors since 1999, who directly or indirectly have breached their special duty toward children, and are therefore complicit in the crime, to be tried by the ICC.
SERAP argued that by the conduct of those in authority, the out-of-school Nigerian children have been exposed to real danger, violence and even untimely death.