MAMA Centre Calls
MAMA Centre Calls for Policy Actions to End Violence
Against Women
The Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre (MAMA Centre)
commemorates the International Day to End Violence against Women,
while calling for more stringent and holistic policy actions to
address recurring violence and abuses against women in both public
and private spheres.
We are seriously bothered by the intensity of women subjected to
rape, undignified torture, mental and physical abuses on daily
basis in all ramifications including armed forces with deliberate
silence or pretentious intervention by relevant authority.
We are not unaware of the overbearing disproportionate responses
by Nigerian security forces personnel towards civil cases involving
women are among the ruthless in the world for their intentional use
of excessive force and extra-judicial killing, verbal attacks and
psychological intimidation reportedly mounted on women at both
formal and informal sectors.
We recall the recent cases of ill-treatment and abuses against
over 100 innocent women who were arrested, assaulted and sexually
harassed in Abuja during an unlawfully raid carried out at night
clubs and hotels in Abuja metropolis by operatives of the Federal
Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Joint Task Team, which is
comprised of the Department of Development Control, Abuja
Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Social Development
Secretariat (SDS).
While women and girls account for 70 percent of global human
trafficking victims, according to a United Nations report, most
victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation, abuses,
dehumanization, and are grossly stripped of their dignity.
Marriage constitutes an enabling harbouring platform for
continued and unchecked domestic abuse, violence and other social
stigma levelled against voiceless women.
We find it worrisome that nearly one third of all of Nigerian
women have experienced silent physical violence, which encompasses
battery, marital rape and murder, at the hands of their intimate
partners; with normalised believe that a husband is justified in
beating his wife for a number of reasons. This includes women
isolated in private homes as domestic workers, who suffer
psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.
We therefore, call for full implementation of Violence Against
Persons Prohibition Act with sincere political will to punish
offenders, while urging more independent judiciary to
constructively interpret cases and impose sanctions without fear,
intimidation or favour.
We also call for more proactive policy actions for women
empowerment to encourage self-reliance and socio-economic
self-sustainability of women with holistically instituted reporting
system/mechanism to ease and encourage complaints process and
efficiently address reported cases of violence against women at all
levels.
Signed:
Barrister Ola E. Onyegbula
Executive Director, MAMA Centre