The Trade Union Congress (TUC) Women Commission, in partnership with Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has called on the government to ensure that the Criminal Code Act, as amended, is passed into law by the National Assembly and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Besides, the Women Commission said it was also working with the National Assembly and the Ministry of Labour and Employment for the ratification of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 190, which seeks to end violence and harassment in the workplace, in Nigeria.
The commission said its partnership was part of efforts to nip in the bud rampant cases of rape and all forms of gender based violence in the country.
The Criminal Code Act Cap. C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (SB.02) was sponsored by Senator Oluremi Tinubu from Lagos Central Senatorial District, on September 24, 2019.
The Deputy President of the TUC, Oyinkan Olasanoye, made the call while speaking during a campaign on ‘Say no to rape and all forms of gender based violence’, organised by the Women Commission of the TUC and held across the states of the federation.
He said the partnership is creating more awareness and working assiduously to ensure that rape and domestic violence bill becomes law and the ILO Convention 90 domesticated.
Olasanoye, who is a former chairperson of the TUC Women Commission said: “On the ILO Convention 190, we are working on advocacy and leveraging on the bill. COVID-19 has delayed the passage of the Act, and the reason we are still working on it. Latest by September or October, we should hear more on it, because all the women commission of the labour centres are working together to ensure the bill comes to limelight.”
The National Chairperson, TUC Women Commission, Hafsat Shaibu, condemned rape and all forms of gender based violence, and lamented that the heinous act has eaten deep into the society like a cankerworm.
In her speech, she called on everyone to join hands to wipe out the menace because anyone could be a victim, adding that the crimes are majorly perpetrated against women and girls, or a group of persons that are vulnerable because of their gender.
She advised victims of rape and gender victimization, to, against all odds, speak out, adding that parents should always have an eye on their wards, and also be their children’s friends.
She recommended that perpetrators are brought to book by serving on them stiffer penalties and reintegrating the victims into the society.
Shaibu said: “It is disheartening to see the perpetrators of these evil acts going about their normal lives as if they never did anything wrong, leaving the large number of victims and few survivors in a society where they are stigmatised, called all sorts of names and above all faced with an already failed future.
“We are calling on every Nigerian to join in the efforts to tackle rape and sexual violence by protecting specifically the women and the girl child, ensuring prompt report of cases, seeking justice for the abused and punishing severely the perpetrators. Silence should not be an option in any case.”
The Speaker at the event and Co-ordinator, Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, stressed the need for parent to change the narrative of raising their children to avoid domestic violence.
To put a stop to sexual and gender based violence, she said, “we need to do a lot of sensitisation, create awareness and increase offender responsibility by ensuring that people are prosecuted for these offences, especially on defilement of children.
“We need to increase access to information, a lot of people are still unaware of support services, toll lines that are available and offices they can visit to report such cases.
“On breaking the culture of silence immediately a sexual assault occurs, the first thing to do is to go to a medical facility to receive medical attention and when we are able to collect evidence and samples for DNA, we start solving cases using forensic, to avoid cases of he said, she said.”
She emphasized more on the impact of domestic violence on the survivors, how to recognise signs of domestic violence, how to reduce child abuse, how to handle sexual abuse and what the law says in handling issues of such among others.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
1,126 Killed, 380 Abducted In 7 Northern States —Amnesty Int’l
The GLOBAL watchdog, Amnesty International, on Sunday, claimed at least 1,126 rural dwellers in seven northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara, have lost their lives to rampaging insecurity in the zone since the beginning of the year. In a statement highlighting its recent findings, about 380 villagers were also reportedly abducted for ransom within the months under review, with victims’ relatives…
MONDAY LINES: El-Rufai Goes To Law School
I have this Igbo friend whom I call Omo Oduduwa. He speaks the Yoruba language with a competence that claps for whoever his teacher is – and he flaunts it. Every expression that shoots out of his trunk is rooted in wisdom. He once told me in Yoruba that his enemy was ill but he was the one taking medicine for the illness (ó re òtá mi sùgbón èmi ni mo nl’ògun). That statement I remembered when I read Professor Ishaq Akintola of…
Water Resources Bill: Lawmaker Says It Is Dead On Arrival
FEDERAL lawmakers are again smarting for a showdown with their leadership and the presidency once they resume from their annual vacation. The mutual ethnic suspicion in the polity will again reverberate in the consideration of the controversial National Water Resources Bill 2020, Nigerian Tribune investigation revealed. The bill which was shut down in the eighth National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki…
LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT: Route To Iconic Leadership
The transformation of leaders into icons has much to do with what they don’t do rather than what they do. While it is fashionable for leaders to say ‘yes’ to a number of things, it is only those who make it a habit to say ‘no’ to many things that become icons. According to Warren Buffet, the investment guru, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost…
and then