EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO HEALTH IN NIGERIA.

AI and Children’s Right to Health in Nigeria

Abstract

Children’s right to health, understood as every child’s right to the highest attainable standard of health, is protected under international human rights law and Nigerian domestic law. It is central to children’s survival, development, dignity and wellbeing. However, evidence from multilateral organisations indicates that Nigeria continues to record serious violations of this right and has not achieved Sustainable Development Goal 3.Existing scholarship has largely examined institutional, financial, infrastructural and social barriers to the realisation of children’s health rights. Comparatively little attention has been given to the potential of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), to strengthen the design and implementation of child-health programmes in Nigeria. This study therefore examines Nigeria’s legal and institutional capacity to deploy AI in protecting children’s right to health.The study adopts doctrinal and comparative legal methods. It analyses relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the Child Rights Act 2003, international human rights instruments, the Sustainable Development Goals, case law and relevant secondary literature.The study finds that the existing legal and policy framework has not adequately realised children’s right to health. Conventional approaches, focused primarily on physical infrastructure and health-worker training, have not produced optimal outcomes, as reflected in persistent child mortality and Nigeria’s failure to meet SDG 3. It argues that AI should be integrated as a complementary tool within broader legal, institutional and public-health reforms.