The Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP), with support from the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Programme (RoLAC), has held a consultative meeting on the need to strengthen justice and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) responses in Edo State.
WRAHP, a leading non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO) in the country, said that Nigeria remained a patriarchal society where gender inequality has continued to limit the rights of women and girls.
The Executive Director and WRAHP Manager of Ireti Resource Centre, Bose Ironsi, who stated this following fallout from a consultative meeting, said that gender inequality has continued to place women and girls in vulnerable positions across various aspects of life, including politics, economic and personal security.
She said that the systemic imbalance has contributed significantly to the high incidence of SGBV that women and girls experience daily.
Ironsi added that survivors of SGBV often struggle to access justice due to legal system inefficiencies, societal stigma and a lack of trust in formal reporting mechanisms.
“To address this issue faced by survivors and responders of SGBV cases, WRAHP, with support from RoLAC, held a consultative meeting aimed at improving the enforcement of laws
“As part of the ongoing project ‘Scaling up access to justice-related social services for women and girls survivors of SGBV in Lagos and Edo states’, this meeting will serve as a platform for collaboration, bringing together key stakeholders in the justice sector, law enforcement agencies, civil society organizations and community leaders.
“And gender rights advocates to identify challenges hindering the implementation of the existing laws and policies against SGBV, develop actionable recommendations to improve legal and social service delivery for survivors and strengthen coordination among stakeholders to ensure timely justice and holistic support for affected women and girls,” Ironsi said.
Speaking with newsmen during the ceremony, the Manager for Ireti Resources Centre of WRAHP, Precious Eberechukwu, disclosed that the programme supported by RoLAC will help to strengthen access to justice for survivors of SGBV.
On her part, the Project Officer of WRHP in the state, Akpojevba Ufuoma Juliet, said the organisation’s effort has yielded to the prosecution of offenders of SGBV and domestic violence, adding that many survivors have gotten justice.
She disclosed that WRHP has continued to sensitise the people on the issue of SGBV, adding that the aim is to reach out to the people in the 18 local government area across the state.
According to the Coordinator, Vivian Ogu SGBV Centre in Benin, Dr. Faith Uyi Edebor said lacking of funding, logistics, non availability of medical consumables, forensic laboratory, rape kits and lack of synergy with other agencies are some of the factors militating against fight of SGBV and domestic violence.
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