BENIN CITY- Non-Governmental Organisation under the aegis of Women’s Rights And Health Project (WRAHP), has said all hands must be on deck to end Gender-Based Violence (GBV), particularly against women and young girls in Nigeria.
The admonition was made by WRAHP Program Officer, Segun Babalola, during the organisation’s “Refresher Workshop for Community representatives on enhancing gender equality and protection from Gender-Based Violence for women and girls in Edo”, held in Benin.
He noted that violence was a major impediment to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Nigeria, hence, the need for the participants to be aware of their rights and enforce same when they are been violated.
Babalola, explained that the participants were selected from different Local Government Areas in Edo who are expected to take the sensitisation campaign against GBV to their various communities.
“We decided to go with communities representatives comprises of the youths women and men drawn across the different local government area of Edo so they can in return sensitise their people against GBV.
He asserted that as part of the need for multi-sectoral responses to ending violence against persons, strategies to curbing the scourge must include working with communities representatives in order to identify promising approaches to ending GBV.
Delivering her lecture entitled, “Understanding Human Rights, Gender and Gender-Based Violence”, Professor Agatha Eguavoen, opined that some obnoxious traditional practices in communities are often responsible for violence against married women whose husbands are dead.
The Professor of Sociology from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, listed sexual assault, forced marriage, wife inheritance, public humiliation, trial by ordeal as some of the violence against the women,
The Vasity don enumerated right to life, human dignity, freedom of association, Equality before the Law, right to own property, freedom of belief/religion, privacy at homes, family and community as some of the fundamental rights of the people.
While maintaining that violence against persons is not limited to particular sex as it affects both the male and female folks in the society, Mrs. Eguavoen urged the people to always speak out whenever they are been oppressed, abused and molested.
Speaking on a topic titled:” Edo State Violence Against Persons (VAPP),” Barr. Stella Ojeme, said the VAPP Law 2021, is aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination both in private and public life.
Commenting, one of the participants, Barrister Sule Rukayat Omoshoke, commended the organisation for its efforts to end violence against persons in Nigerian society.
