By Thompson Yamput
The International Federation of Women Lawyers, (FIDA) on Monday decried the increasing cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence and Child Early Forced Marriage (CEFM) in Nigeria.
FIDA National President, Mrs Amina Agbaje made the lamentation in Lokoja during a Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Implementation/Status of Gender Responsive Services For Women and Girls in Nigeria.
The programme is being supported by Nigeria Civil Society Situation-room
with funding from UK International Development.
Agbaje, who is also the The Country Vice President, said that, SGBV and (CEFM) remained serious challenges facing women especially those marginalized and facing intersecting forms of discrimination or multi-deprivation
Represented by the Kogi State Chairperson of FIDA, Barr. Lilian Okolo, the president posited: “The menace of sexual & gender based violence requires a holistic and collaborative effort as survivors deserve to be treated delicately and with empathy at all stages of the criminal process taking into cognizance their traumatic and psychological state.”
“It’s very unfortunate that sexual and Gender based violence and child early forced marriage have become a menace in our society. We actually want to see preventive measures to forestall future occurrence especially the children who don’t know their left from their right”.
“We in FIDA have resolved to join hands with relevant stakeholders in the fight against sexual and gender based violence and child early forced marriage that are degrading the our womanhood in this country.
“Regrettably there is poor awareness on the VAPP law in Kogi, which calls collaborative efforts to address the situation in the state with the seriousness it deserves.
“This stakeholders consultative forum is intended to foster collaboration, partnerships, and experience shared learning on best practices for gender responsive service delivery for women and girls by state actors and service providers through a coordinated approach.
“It’s also aimed at improving networking by Civil Society Organisationsv(CSOs) in the state towards an improved GBV programming, prevention and response while providing a platform for state and non-state actors to strategically unify strategies in mitigating reported cases through policy influencing.
“We hope that at the end of this training, what we intends to achieve is to build the capacity of every participants for them to understand what a gender responsive targeting is all about, ” she said.
According to her, there is the need for the Kogi Government to immediately declare State of emergency on gender and sexual based violence in the State.
Earlier in her welcome address, the Assistant Program Manager of FIDA, Ezinwa Obiajunwa, regretted that the fight against SGBV in Kogi has been a case of one step forward and ten steps backward.
Obiajunwa called on the state government to gazette VAPP laws in demonstration of its seriousness at handling SGBV cases and save women the traumatic experiences. (ephemeralnews)
