Nigeria recently joined the rest of the world to mark the ’16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2021′. This year, the ROLAC Programme of the British Council was one of the organisations that drove the advocacy with Sexual Assaults Referral Centres, Mock Courts and Counselling Sessions for victims of SGBV, amongst other activities. Michael Olugbode reports on the journey so far
Annually, the ’16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2021 is usually held from November 25 to December 10 every year. For many non-governmetal, it affords them the opportunity to shine the spotlight on a cause dear to their heart. This year was not different for the ROLAC Programme of the British Council, one of the organisations driving the advocacy with Sexual Assaults Referral (SARC), as commemorated the occasion with a get together to ruminate on the journey so far.
Background
The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.”
The global body also described intimate partner violence as a behaviour by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviour.
It further defined sexual violence as “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other body part or object, attempted rape, unwanted sexual touching and other non-contact forms”.
Statistics
The statistics are alarming as over a quarter of women aged 15-49 years who have been in a relationship have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner at least once in their lifetime (since age 15). The prevalence estimates of lifetime intimate partner violence range from 20 per cent in the Western Pacific, 22 per cent in high-income countries and Europe and 25 per centin the WHO Regions of the Americas to 33 per cent in the WHO African region, 31 per cent in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, and 33 per cent in the WHO South-East Asia region.
Globally, as many as 38 per cent of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners. In addition to intimate partner violence, globally six per cent of women report having been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner, although data for non-partner sexual violence are more limited. Intimate partner and sexual violence are mostly perpetrated by men against women.
Grim Figure Amplified by COVID-19 Lockdown
This grim statistic was amplified during the stay-at-home lockdowns imposed as one of the measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Its social and economic impacts increased the exposure of women to abusive partners and known risk factors while limiting their access to services. Also related is the situations of humanitarian crises and displacement, which often exacerbate existing violence, such as by intimate partners, as well as non-partner sexual violence, and may also lead to new forms of violence against women.
These are the issues that the ’16 Days of Activism against SGBV’ set aside annually by the United Nations and supported by governments and non-governmental organisations across the world aims to eliminate.
16 Days of Activism against SGBV
The ’16 Days of Activism Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day. It was initiated in 1991 by the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, held by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University.
The dates of the campaign align with significant dates, including: November 25– International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women;
November 29– International Women Human Rights Defenders Day; December 1– World AIDS Day; December 5– International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development; December 6–marks the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, observed in Canada as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women; and December 10– International Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Since 1991, more than 6,000 organisations from approximately 187 countries have participated in the campaign. The theme for 2021 “Orange the World: End Violence Against Women Now’, RoLAC Programme of the British Council, European Union, United Nations, Ministries of Justice and Women Affairs amongst other activities, are some of the organisations actively engaged in this advocacy.
This 2021 marked the 26 years post-Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the post-pandemic year is still in shock on the fragility in several systems ranging from the health sector to the economy; and more importantly, the pandemic affirmed the country’s distance from a world where women’s rights are guaranteed and more women excelling as equal partners as the pandemic exposed a worrying increase in incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.
Struggle for Nigeria
In Nigeria, the struggle to eliminate or perhaps reduce the incidences of violence against persons especially women has been raging since 2001, from the first convening of the campaign in Feb.2001 of the then Violent Against Women Bill process (Mahdi, 2019), to the eventually signed into law of the bill: Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, 2015.
It is, however, a sad narrative that so far not much has changed despite great efforts by the government and other stakeholders–even the Violence Against Persons Prohibition(VAPP) Act is yet to make the expected change as cases of violence have not been substantially reduced.
According to UNWomen nearly one in three women in the country has been abused in their lifetime. In times of crises, the numbers rise, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and recent humanitarian crises, conflicts and climate disasters.
This point was highlighted by the Programme Specialist, Spotlight Initiative, UN Women Nigeria, Ms Tosin Akiba, who said in 2020, Nigeria recorded 11,200 rape cases including children raped to death while lamenting that the rape cases were underreported due to stigma, victim-blaming, poor access to justice for survivors and slow progress from the domestication of laws to implementation.
Akiba further revealed that in Nigeria: “Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence is 17.4 per cent; physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months 11 per cent; lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence, 1.5 per cent; child marriage 43.5 per cent and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, 18.4 per cent.”
In the same vein, the Programme Officer, RoLAC programme of the British Council, Ms Hannatu Essien, at a pre-event briefing marking the 16 Days of Activism, stated that a total of about 23,207 survivors of sexual assault have been reported in eight years, specifically between July 2013 when the first Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) was established.
Essien while explaining that: “the RoLAC Programme is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Justice, FCT Judiciary and the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons on The Survivor Project (NAPTIP), in commemoration of the ’16 Days of Activism 2021′, said: “Since the establishment of the first Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Nigeria in 2013 and the establishment of the 31 SARCs that have followed, the SARCs have continued to provide free immediate emergency medical treatment, counselling and follow up support to survivors of rape and sexual assault, including support for their engagement with the legal system”.
According to her, the SARCs Network has in just eight years, grown from a single centre in Lagos to 32 SARCs across 19 states in Nigeria; assisting 23,207 survivors of sexual assault combined, between July 2013 and September 2021, over 70 per cent of whom have been children under the age of 18 years.
Poor Representation
However, despite the remarkable expansion and spread of the SARC initiative in Nigeria and stronger focus nationwide on the provision of comprehensive medical and counselling services for survivors, the number of SGBV cases reported to SARCs is still a poor representation of the scale of sexual assault in the country.
The number of SGBV cases that are prosecuted are very few compared to the number of reports. As a result of this,, over the years there has been a growing call for the establishment of specialised courts for SGBV in Nigeria to address delays in the justice process.
Forms of Violence, Root Causes and Consequences
Reports by international bodies like the UN and World Health Organisation (WHO) among others have analysed and categorised the different forms of Violence Against Women (VAW) occurring through all stages of life from birth to old age. There are also rising cases of violence against men and boys.
The reports have shown some of the causes of violence, especially against women to include: Risky acts by both intimate and sexual partners (perpetration of sexual violence and experience of sexual violence); a history of exposure to child maltreatment (perpetration and experience); witnessing family violence (perpetration and experience); antisocial personality disorder (perpetration); harmful use of alcohol (perpetration and experience); harmful masculine behaviour, including having multiple partners or attitudes that condone violence (perpetration); community norms that privilege or ascribe higher status to men and lower status to women; low levels of women’s access to paid employment; and low level of gender equality (discriminatory laws, etc.).
Other causes include the history of exposure to violence; marital discord and dissatisfaction; difficulties in communicating between partners; male controlling behaviours towards their partners; beliefs in family honour and sexual purity; ideologies of male sexual entitlement; and weak legal sanctions for sexual violence.
Gender inequality and norms on the acceptability of violence against women are a root cause of violence against women. Consequences have also been identified, which include serious short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems for women. They also affect their children’s health and wellbeing. This violence leads to high social and economic costs for women, their families and societies.
According to the research, violence against women fits into several broad categories including violence carried out by individuals as well as states. Some of the forms of violence perpetrated by individuals are rape; domestic violence; sexual harassment; acid throwing; reproductive coercion; female infanticide; parental sex selection; obstetric violence; online gender-based violence, and mob violence.
They also include harmful customary or traditional practices such as honour killings; dowry violence; female genital mutilation; marriage by abduction, and forced marriage. There have also been identified some forms of violence which may be perpetrated or condoned by the government, such as war rape; sexual slavery during conflict; forced sterilisation; forces abortion; violence by police and authoritative personnel; stoning and flogging.
Unfortunately, the increase in the occurrence of violence against women and girls in Nigeria amongst other factors has been linked to the absence of leadership and the voices of women and girls at all levels. This is not unconnected with the lack of cohesiveness in their ranks to mobilise and network as forerunners in demanding women and girls rights despite their population advantage and developmental contributions. One major factor stems from the fact that victims rarely get Justice as the judicial system is not absent of the Nigerian factor of corruption and slow process creating more trauma for the victim, and most times and to a large extent deter some from walking the long walk to Justice.
Advocacy for Special Courts
As part of the 16 Days of Activism, court scenarios on cases bordering on Gender-Based Violence were organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice, FCT High Court and NAPTIP in collaboration with the EU through the ROLAC Programme. This, according to the advocates, will enable speedy prosecution of the case, help victims find closure and deter others who might want to toe the line of violence.
Speaking on this at the 7th Conference on Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) in Nigeria as part of the events marking the ’16 Days of Activism against SGBV 2021′, the National Programme Manager, RoLAC, Mr. Danladi Plang, amongst other stakeholders, called for the establishment of separate courts to prosecute the cases of SGBV.
The plan emphasised the need for critical actors to collaborate, in the fight as well as provide a platform for experts to identify policy options, legal innovations, best practices, processes for the establishment, and modalities for operation. He said that “for many years, there have been calls for the prosecution of cases of SGBV, in separate courts, it is for this reason RoLAC is campaigning this year for the separate judicial process.
“The main objective of this conference is to identify policy options, recommendations and action for the efficient disposal of rights of victims and mobilise relevant actors.”
Speaking further, Plang stated that, from last year a lot has happened as most states have domesticated the VAPP law, and now have more SARC, adding, about 32 have been created with the latest being Kebbi state. “There is a serious consensus that the prosecution of offenders is key even as the cases reported are very few, there is a disproportionately higher number of victims to the perpetrators, and of course they deserve Justice, as different as they may be,” he said.
Most recently, this call was echoed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, (SAN), who stressed the inadequacies in the adjudication of these cases in the present system. Malami’s call followed the inauguration in 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari, of an inter-ministerial Management committee on eradication of sexual and gender-based violence, a demonstration of the government’s renewed commitment to comprehensively address SGBV and protect victims.
Malami, while speaking at the Mock trial, also called for the training of investigators and prosecutors as specialists in the handling of SGBV cases in Nigeria. He noted that it is imperative to train these first responders in the access to justice spectrum on evidence collection and storage, intelligence gathering and reporting, evidence analysis and chain of custody preservation stressing the need for the establishment of more SARCs across the country.
He said: “The absence of SARCs is is at the very core of my ministerial pursuit and I am seriously working on an Access to Justice based SARCs, which will evolve in due course.”This is a holistic vehicle that provides an all-inclusive integrated service amongst MDAs to the survivors of SGBV”. it is, therefore, he noted, critical, fundamental and essential in-service delivery to survivors.
According to the minister, access to justice based SARC will include improved health care services that would address the medical, physical, mental and psychosocial consequences of SGBV to Survivors. While noting that, there is also a need to train our Judges on the handling of SGBV cases especially about victim and witness protection and the management of evidence gathered due to the sensitive nature of these cases.
This was the essence of the moot court, he stressed, noting that the idea of the mock tribunal was to demonstrate the realities encountered in the criminal justice system when it comes to victims and survivors of SGBV, who are in search of justice, this is the process of both perpetrators having fair trial and victims getting justice. As such the judges, investigators and prosecutors examined and cross-examined cases of domestic violence, rape amongst others.
Malami commended all the Judges, lawyers and stakeholders who took out time to participate in the Moot Court and assure everyone present of his dedication to the fight against SGBV.
In the same vein, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, Chief Justice of the Federation reiterated the need for court but also advised that “in creating a special court we need to have trained judges and this is a lot of work. This is an issue that takes more than talking, things must be in place, when we have everything set then we can start talking of special courts.
Before we go advocating for special courts, Muhammad said, we need to put in place all other structures that will make this succeed. He stressed that rape is a serious issue, the bottom line is that it should not even get there, the rules of engagement must change. “Rural areas need to have a gender desk of institutions with specialised personnel to attend to vulnerable victims, the first contact for victims needs to be able to bring them out of despair,” he said.
Stiffer Punishment for SGBV Offenders
On her part, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen, called for stiffer punishment to SGBV offenders in the country to deter others. Tallen who described the rising cases of SGBV in Nigeria, called for action while supporting the laws enacted by Kaduna State Government, which prescribed castration as a punishment to sexual assault offenders.
According to her, “two or more of those sexual offenders should be castrated publicly” to serve as a deterrence to others. Quoting statistics, Tallen disclosed that, the National Situation Room and Dashboard set up in the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs under the UN/EU Spotlight initiative targeting 6 States supported by UNDP as of November 24, 2021, totalled number of cases reported to be 5,204 of which 3,125 survivors are demanding justice and only 33 perpetrators have so far been convicted, representing 0.51 per cent. The fatal cases are 160, closed cases 231, while open cases (cases pending in court) are 972.
The minister noted that the trend is unacceptable, and efforts will be intensified with the Federal Ministry of Justice to ensure justice for victims and survivors.
She said: “The present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated high commitment not only to eliminate harmful practices against women and girls; but also, to curb the rampaging impact of COVID-19 pandemic and other SGBV.
“In the light of this, a significant amount in our 2022 budget has been dedicated to fighting Gender Based-Violence nationwide. Mr. President in his 2022 Budget Statement to the National Assembly has gone a step further to direct that Ministries, Departments and Agencies must devote some amount in their budgets to address gender-related issues”
She employed all relevant Ministries to engage, amplify advocacy to the States and rural communities for further enlightenment in this regard.
Similarly, the Country Representative of UNWomen, Ms Comfort Lamptey, emphasised the need to join forces to create awareness and education in eliminating and ending the scourge of Gender-Based Violence from the community and our nations.
Lamptey noted that preventive methods are critical to ending GBV. It requires a commitment from all of us to work against the harmful practice that sustains gender inequality.
“More men need to step up to form forces with some right advocates, through the UNWomen joint spotlight initiative to engage stakeholders in the community, traditional rulers to address some of the patriarchal norms that encourage gender inequality.
“Provide a comprehensive support system that will help survivor centred services which include police, Justice, and social sectors, As well as sufficient financing for women, are essential ingredients to the fight against GBV.
“The past two years in Nigeria have experienced progress on the domestication of the VAPP act to the law since it was passed in 2015, with a total of 30 states out of 36in Nigeria, this commendable feat was achieved by the declaration of a state of emergency on GBV by the Nigerian Governor forum in 2020.
“We need to ensure that the federal and state governments ensure that GBV survivors have full access to justice, with reliable prosecution of perpetrators.
“Put women at the centre of responses Including the policy situation solutions, Strengthen services including Justice for women who experience violence and invest in prevention efforts to end Violence Against Women and Girls,” she stressed.
In the same vein, Ambassador, Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Samuela Isopi identified impunity as fuel for GBV. This is not far fetched as most times perpetrators become repeat offenders as they feel they can get away with the act.
According to her, “this type of violence remains largely unreported due to the stigma and shame surrounding it, and the lack of confidence in authorities. As a result, many perpetrators remain free and unpunished. Impunity contributes to fuel GBV.
“Impunity contributes to fuel SGBV, if we do not stop impunity, we may not be able to stop GBV, the government has a critical role in maintaining and sustaining of the separate court for it to succeed, the government needs to take ownership of this court by allocating resources to address the need of the people,” she said.
Chairperson of the SARC in Nigeria, Prof. Joy Ezeilo, explained that some of these things keep going on because of low accountability and low prosecution of this case. She noted that the evidence and sometimes little technicalities can make a very viable case pathetic not to lead to a conviction. “That is the problem we are trying to convey best practice about prosecution and what changes the law have brought, like the VAPP Law, the NAPTIP ACT. They brought in innovations, which connoted gender offence is not just committed against a woman, with this you see the good, the bad and the ugly.
“If for example, our population is 100million, at least 30milliin women and girls are victims of gender-based violence, it is really serious when we say one in every three women is going to be a victim in their lifetime is an underestimation, because daily you hear about this coupled with the cases handled in the SARC and other organisation,” she said.
Since its establishment in 2013, SARC has continued to provide free immediate emergency medical treatment, counselling and follow up support to survivors of rape and sexual assault.
Ezeilo noted that in just eight years, the SARC Network has grown from a single SARC in Lagos to 32 SARCS across 19 states in Nigeria assisting over 22,000 survivors of sexual assault combined.
She stressed that there is a remarkable expansion spread of the SARC initiative in Nigeria and a stronger focus nationwide on comprehensive medical and counseling services for survivors.
In addition to supporting their engagement with the legal system, there is strong evidence that the number of SGBV cases reported to SARCs is still a poor representation of the scale of sexual assault in Nigeria and the number of cases that are prosecuted, are very few compared to the number of incidents.
Ezeilo stated that the ROLAC Programme would like to support the call and effort to establish specialised courts for SGBV by holding these mock specialised SGBV courts.
According to her, this will model what survivor centred SGBV court processes and proceedings would look like in the context of Nigeria’s legislative social policy environment.
“It will provide the opportunity to model police investigation and prosecution scenarios that support or compromise justice for survivors,” she said.
She said that the lessons gathered from the mock trials will assist law enforcement, the judiciary and the criminal justice system to fast track the justice process on similar existing cases.
Ezeilo said it will also encourage justice service providers to employ the right attitudes and tools in their interactions with victims and perpetrators of SGBV. She also noted that they brought in innovations, which connotes gender offence is not just committed against a woman, with this you see the good, the bad and the ugly.
“If for example, our population is 100million, at least 30 million women and girls are victims of gender-based violence, it is really serious when we say one in every three women is going to be a victim in their lifetime is an underestimation, because in a daily basis you hear about this coupled with the cases handled in the SARC and other organisation”, she said.
Also speaking from the Justice system, former Minister of Justice, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode SAN reiterated that many people go through this violence today from an immediate environment who are very close.
Kayode was of the view that these persons are sometimes those persons who feel they are higher in status and the victim cannot do anything to them.
According to the former Minister of Defence, trauma for people who go through violence is unimaginable. We should be able to carve out the proof of evidence and the very important burden. There must be litigations that must be directed by the court. The laws are prospective, we make laws for the future.
He said there is a need to vow to never raise your hand to your spouse, it might become necessary to use the law to reduce incidents of domestic violence.
“I am an advocate for special courts and I feel they should be a specialised court for different cases”, headed.
Gender-based violence is not inevitable. It can and must be prevented. Stopping this violence starts with believing survivors, adopting comprehensive and inclusive approaches that tackle the root causes, transform harmful social norms, and empower women and girls. With survivor-centred essential services across policing, justice, health, and social sectors, and sufficient financing for the women’s rights agenda.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr. Tony Ojukwu, while lamenting the growing cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the country, said that between 2020 and March 2021 alone the Commission received over 139,780 complaints on SBGV, enjoined stakeholders to focus more attention on public education/awareness on SGBV and implementation of extant laws and policies that will entrench the culture of accountability around gender issues.
Ojukwu appealed to Civil Society Organisations (CSO), traditional authorities, and religious leaders to be at the forefront in tackling the scourge of SGBV saying that more sensitisation is needed at the grassroots level so that people will become more conscious of protecting and enforcing their rights and the consequences and punishments that await any culprits.
He said: The Commission has carried out various programmes and activities including holding public hearings in the six geopolitical zones of the country to address the upsurge of SGBV cases. The 36 state offices of the NHRC and Headquarters have continued to grapple with these cases daily, and we can rightly say that there is the hope of changing the ugly narratives.”
Parting Words
To fully win the battle against SGBV, all hands need to be on deck and every stratum of the society need to be involved, we need to look inside and see where we may have all gone wrong, where we have not raised a voice against SGBV when all it requires from us is just that. We also need to look into our culture and perhaps our upbringing and make a change. We may all have contributed to building this monster and we equally need to contribute to arresting and killing it.
Quotes
Since the establishment of the first Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Nigeria in 2013 and the establishment of the 31 SARCs that have followed, the SARCs have continued to provide free immediate emergency medical treatment, counselling and follow up support to survivors of rape and sexual assault
Gender-based violence is not inevitable. It can and must be prevented. Stopping this violence starts with believing survivors, adopting comprehensive and inclusive approaches that tackle the root causes, transform harmful social norms, and empower women and girls
