health sector reforms. These reforms have started yielding expected dividends as girl child enrollments in schools have improved dramatically while maternal mortality rate has dropped significantly since the Federal Government recruited 2000 qualified midwives and mobilized them to various rural communities. 3.7.3 Government is undertaking advocacy programmes in the areas of sensitization and awareness creation to enlighten women on their rights as well as on various health improvement practices and drugs relevant to their daily lives. In terms of domestication of the standards and codes on women related matters, some State Assemblies in the federation have passed laws or adopted the relevant instruments on maternal and child rights. 3.7.4 While some states, like Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Ogun, Ekiti, Abia, Rivers, Taraba etc have passed the Child Rights Law, others undertook the domestication and adoption of international conventions based on their peculiar socio-cultural and religious backgrounds. For example, while Cross River and some other states addressed child abuse by prohibiting child marriages and female circumcision and gender violence by prohibiting domestic violence against women and maltreatment of women, states like Edo, Rivers, Delta, Ogun and Osun enacted laws prohibiting inhuman treatment of widows, dehumanizing and harmful traditional practices and abolition of female circumcision. 3.7.5 The Federal Government uses advocacy and persuasion in its efforts at making more States adopt the instruments. With the conviction that 29