From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As this year’s 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence against women and girls scheduled to hold between November 25 through December 10 began, Christian Aid Nigeria has called on the Nigerian government to protect the rights of women’s human rights defenders and activists.
Christian Aid (UK) Nigeria is a faith-based international non-governmental, non-partisan, civil society organization
working in Nigeria with a focus on Health and human development, humanitarian and sustainable livelihood, and
democracy and good governance.
Senior Communications Coordinator, Christian Aid (UK) Nigeria, Kehinde Afolabi in a statement said the call became necessary because the past decade has witnessed the productive efforts of grassroots activists and women’s rights defenders
According to him, “every year, the 16 days of activism period reminds us of the persistence of the most widespread breach of human rights ever – violence against women and girls.
“This past decade has seen the productive efforts of grassroots activists, women’s human rights defenders, and movements move strategies for ending violence against women higher on the political agenda like never before in Nigeria.
“This is evident in the review and passage of laws that protect women in most of the states of the country”.
He, however, noted that “the social, political, and economic impact of some life-changing events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Nigeria’s October 2020 End-SARS crisis threatens the few gains that have been recorded in this struggle as the country witnessed the exposure of deep structural inequalities and heightened occurrences of various forms of violence against women and girls.
“It is especially worrisome when such violence extends to those whom the survivors of violence look up to for support and justice. We now see a common trend to see women
defenders routinely targeted with harassment, hate speech, discrimination, dissemination of personal or intimate
information, defamation, and other forms of online violence to silence and punish their public participation in social
media.
“Besides the direct psycho-social effect of this on the rights defenders, it also sends a negative message to
Survivors of violence, as well as upcoming women human rights defenders*, he said.
He lamented that shrinking civic space, especially for women and girls, ‘would only take us back” to the era of intense culture of silence; an adversary that held many survivors hostage for too long.
“As an organization committed to promoting gender and social inclusion, we will continue to publicly take a position against all forms of violence targeting women and girls.
“We stand in solidarity with all women rights defenders and do our part in resisting the rollback on women’s rights.
“Christian Aid (UK) Nigeria joins the global community to call for an end to all forms gender based violence and urges the Nigerian Government and all duty bearers to prioritize the protection of women human rights activists who are in the forefront of fighting Gender-Based Violence”, he said.