Civil society groups advocate justice for SGBV victims

Sequel to the high cases of sexual gender-based violence in the country, Founding Director, Women Aid Collective (WACOL), Professor Joy Ngozi Ezilo, has called for diligent prosecution of perpetrators of violence against women.

Professor Ezilo made the plea during the two-day capacity building training for Civil Society Organizations on legislative advocacy for women’s rights as organized by WACOL in collaboration with United Nations women under the SportLight Initiative project in Abakaliki.

According to the director, the training was focus on preparing CSOs to be able to engage with the lawmakers on the need to protect the rights of women and the girl-child especially on issues around violence against women and the girl-child.

Professor Ezilo said: “This training is in two phases, one on legislative advocacy and another on reporting and monitoring.

“We know that sexual and gender-based violence are violence that disproportionately affect women and girls and there are so many in our environment including early and forced marriage, female genital cutting, widowhood practices, denial of inheritance rights, trafficking in human being, wife battering, child abuse and neglect with a whole lot of others.

“We just got one case of acid attack and wife battering over the weekend and the best way of curtailing such is to ensure that suspect or perpetrator is made to face the law. So, the law should adequately protect girl-child and women; and the law should provide remedy and succour.

“Some cases we want our law to address are; if a woman is sexually violated, can she access free medical treatment? We want such a victim to access free counselling services, we want her to get justice; that part of justice is very important. We want her to get justice at the end.”

Professor Ezilo further said that there was a spike in the number of rape cases during the Covid-19 outbreak but frowned upon the inability of these victims to get justice.

“We saw a lot of spike during the Covid-19 time. We want to ensure accountability and that accountability starts with the law.

“It’s true that law is not a panacea but it is a useful beginning. The problem is rather that perpetrators are not prosecuted in accordance with the law and that some laws are not adequate to deal with these sexual violence cases against women especially those that are on increase today like rape, sexual harassment, trafficking in human being.”

She mentioned beneficiaries states of the programme among Ebonyi, Lagos, Cross River, Adamawa, Sokoto and FCT and called for diligent prosecution of perpetrators to serve as a deterrent to others.

While commending Ebonyi State government for the quick passage of law incriminating violators of girl-child and women rights, she also urged the stakeholders to join forces to ensure zero tolerance on violence against women and charged Civil Society Organizations to embark on aggressive public sensitization on global zero tolerance to violence against women, even as they engage parliamentarians in ensuring that right laws are in place among those that require an amendment to tackle the menace squarely.

Meanwhile, the state programme manager SportLight Initiative project-UN Women, Mrs Anulika Ezennaya, said the training would further equip CSOs to propagate laws against violence on girl child and women.

“The training has helped the participated civil Society Organizations to know that even when some states have adopted a law backing the fight against SGBV, that they are to vigorously engage in sensitizing the people about the content of the law.

“This is because, if people don’t know about the law, there’s no way they can try the law. Even some of the lawyers, if you do not sensitize them about the law and content of it, will not try it at the law court. We should from time to time organize training for lawyers, Judges, and Magistrates to tell them about the law and build their capacity on the content of the law”.

The event featured a presentation by resource persons and was attended by various Civil Society Organizations.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.