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(Opinion) Addressing gender-based violence

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (right) in a warm handshake with the Divisional Police Officer, Iso-koko, Agege, Mrs. Funke Olubajo (left) during his meeting with Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team at Lagos House, Ikeja, on Tuesday, July 21, 2015.
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (right) in a warm handshake with the Divisional Police Officer, Iso-koko, Agege, Mrs. Funke Olubajo (left) during his meeting with Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team at Lagos House, Ikeja, on Tuesday, July 21, 2015.

BILKIS BAKARE

Despite the national and international outcry against gender-based violence, the crime still continues and is even attaining a worrisome dimension. Recently in a separate attack in New Delhi, India, two girls; a two and half year-old and another five year-old, were raped.

The two and a half year-old girl was abducted from a religious event in west Delhi by two men on Friday night and raped before being dumped in a park near her home, while, the five-year-old was lured to a neighbour’s house and raped by three men. The attacks add to a grim catalogue of sexual assaults in India, many of which have sparked domestic and international outrage.

Back home in Nigeria, the story of the Arowolos remains indelible in the minds of Nigerians. Akolade Arowolo allegedly stabbed his banker wife, Titilayo to death on 24th June, 2011 at their Isolo, Lagos home. And quite recently, the media wash a washed with the death of Dr Hestianna Thomas, a paediatrician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), purportedly murdered by her husband, a consultant pathologist in the same hospital.  These and more are some of the prices woman have had to pay for being the “weaker sex”.

In 1993, the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women offered the first official definition of the term “Gender-based Violence” as: “Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” Gender-based violence has become an umbrella term for any harm that is perpetrated against a person’s will, and that results from power inequalities that are based on gender roles. Around the world, gender-based violence almost always has a greater negative impact on women and girls. For this reason the term “Gender-based Violence” (GBV) is often used interchangeably with the term “Violence against Women” (VAW).

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a human rights violation, a public health challenge, and a barrier to civic, social, political, and economic participation. It undermines not only the safety, dignity, overall health status, and human rights of the millions of individuals who experience it, but also the public health, economic stability, and security of nations. Gender-based violence cuts across ethnicity, race, class, religion, education level, and international borders. An estimated one in three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Although statistics on the prevalence of violence vary, the scale is tremendous, the scope is vast, and the consequences for individuals, families, communities, and countries are devastating.

As aforementioned, Violence against women can be physical, sexual or psychological. Other type can be in form of neglect and abandonment and economic disempowerment. Physical violence can occur both in private and in public and it includes but not limited to such acts as slapping, kicking, stabbing, shooting, hitting, pouring acid or any corrosive substance and murder. Other forms are harmful traditional practices and female genital mutilation.

But perhaps the most common form of sexual violence against the women folk is rape. Rape is having sex with a woman and lately young girls and toddlers without their consents. Today, the rape epidemic in our society reflects the extent to which women’s human rights are flagrantly being threatened. Our laws and collective attitudes toward this weapon of domination and repression call to question not only our sense of justice but our level of civilization. Like a scourge, the regular cases of reported rape in the country’s media and confirmed statistics are threatening to smother the essence of the society.

Each day, the media are a washed with weird stories with varying degrees of ludicrousness; from child defilement to the rape of old women. Nobody, not even infants, is safe from the evil rampage of these randy felons on the prowl.

Psychological violence on the other hand is a form of gender based violence which most times are not immediately obvious to the eye. It happens when a person uses words or actions to control, frighten, isolate or take away another person’s self respect, causing severe psychological trauma. It can include put downs, name calling or insults, constant yelling, keeping victim from seeing friends or family or controlling what she wears, where she goes, who she sees etc.

Often times, the victims of physical and psychological violence and to a large extent sexual violence lack the courage to seek legal redress on the violation of their rights due to lack of positive response from the society as problem is often dismissed as a private one even by law enforcement agent and the fear of being exposed to more intense form of abuses. Even the victims condone such violations of their rights as some perceive it as sign of love and the socio-religious belief that a broken marriage or relationship is a mark of failure in life. And also because many women and girls depend on financial resources of their husbands, fathers or families, they are forced to put up with domination for fear of the withdrawal of these financial supports. The threats of being killed by their abusers often expose young victims to more abuses which can affect them later in life.

It is in an attempt to get round this ugly situation that Nigeria became a signatory to a number of international and regional conventions which promote the development and well-being of all citizens. These are complimented by a national law and policy regime which recognizes gender inequality across different sectors and thematic areas. The latter includes the 1999 Constitution; the National Gender Policy and the National Action Plan on United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. These mechanisms are aimed at ensuring that all citizens can live an existence free of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, with access to property rights, and to all of the medical, educational and judicial systems that are in place.

In 2012, the Lagos State House of Assembly made a bold move and passed into law, a bill to provide protection against domestic violence. The state has also gone a step further by inaugurating the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), saddled with the responsibility of rescuing and rehabilitating victims of domestic violence. And quite recently,  the state government launched the state’s guidelines against domestic and sexual violence, called the Domestic Violence Protocol for Responder Agencies aimed at providing guidelines and establishing standards for relevant agencies. These agencies include the police, judiciary officials, health care providers, social workers etc. The Lagos State Government also approved the procurement of Rescue Vehicles, establishment of more shelter and transit homes for victims and would be survivors of domestic violence in addition to the procurement of rape kits and training for sexual assault examiners at primary health care centres across the state.

In all, it is vital to promote the rights of all individuals and reduce gender-based violence. Also, appropriate legislations put in place should be strictly adhered to, and punitive measures taken against those found violating these laws. Unless women, girls, men, and boys fully enjoy their human rights and are free from violence, progress towards development will remain a mirage.

 

Bakare writes from Alausa, Ikeja

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