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I wqasn't making it up, tho it was 12 years ago, not last year. Here's the UNICEF link ~~
   

Africa, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights, World
RIGHTS: UNICEF Condemns Flogging of Teenage Girl in Nigeria
By Thalif Deen Reprint |       | Print | Send by email

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 2001 (IPS) - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Tuesday condemned the public flogging of a teenage Nigerian girl: a punishment meted out for pregnancy outside of marriage.

"There are few States, in any region of the world, across all religious lines, whose justice system allow the flogging or lashing of children," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

She pointed out that there is now a global consensus to protect children from violence – and most especially to spare them from forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment such as flogging.

This consensus, Bellamy said, is represented by the almost universal ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and by the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).

The 17-year-old Nigerian, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, was caned 100 times in the northern Nigerian State of Zamfara last week as a punishment for her pre-marital pregnancy.

The teenager, who is illiterate, was apparently not aware of her right to appeal her sentence and was not provided with adequate legal counsel, according to UNICEF.

"Her case has provoked a torrent of criticism from within Nigeria and around the world – not only because the girl testified that her pregnancy resulted from rape, but because of the fundamental violation of human rights that flogging represents," Bellamy noted.