Centre for Family Health Initiative (CFHI) and Girls Power Initiatives (GPI) have called on victims of gender-based violence (GBV) in Nigeria to speak out against the crime.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) made the call at a workshop tagged ‘National Consultation on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls’ in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Nearly three in ten Nigerian women have experienced physical violence by age 15, according to the Nigeria Democratic Health Survey (NDHS).
Also, about 19.9 million girls have experienced female genial mutilation (FGM) in the country, a 2020 report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), UN Women, and Plan International revealed.
FGM, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
Africa’s most populous nation has ratified nine of the 13 most significant international human rights conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
However, since 2015, only 13 of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have adopted the VAPP law.
The VAPP law makes FGM and other forms of gender-based violence like rape, spousal battery, forceful ejection from home, harmful widowhood practices punishable offences.
According to the Executive Director of CFHI, Krystal Anyanwu, speaking out against GBV will help to change the mindset of perpetrators of the crime.
For her part, Executive Director, Centre for Health Ethics, Law and Development (CHELD), Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, who facilitated the workshop, said that states that have not adopted the VAPP law must do so.
‘We need the government to provide resources, some of these NGOs are doing this work with their personal funds’, she added.
‘We are also calling for more training of stakeholders to do their work, female genital mutilation is gradually coming down, but domestic violence and early child marriage is still very high.
‘There is need for us to do more to put a stop to this issue or perhaps reduce it, the creation of gender unit at the police station and sexual assault referral centres must be made to function effectively’.
Also speaking, GPI Nigeria Head of Programmes, Ndodeye Bassey-Obongha, said that stigmatisation of victims had prevented many from speaking out.
According to her, there is a need to promote the concept of socialisation to break the culture of silence in so many people who are not willing to speak against GBV.
As for a Member of the House of Representatives, Dr Zainab Gimba, she urged men to empower their women, saying this would help to reduce GBV in all spheres of life.
Source: NAN
Photo source: Centre for Family Health Initiative
