From: Ali Abare, Gombe
Stakeholders have decried the increasing rate of violence against women in Gombe State, and are calling for concerted efforts to encourage families of victims to open up and to seek legal redress.
The stakeholders made the call, on Thursday, in a communiqué issued at the end of a two-day interactive session organised by the state inter-agency standing committee on gender-based violence.
The two-day’s event organised by the United Nation Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) through its implementing partner, the Royal Heritage Health Foundation, sought to define and understand gender and sex, highlight differences between gender and sex roles, as well as understand the types, causes and effect of gender-based violence on the societies.
Participants were drawn from government agencies, department and the media with a view to collaborating to reduce gender based violence to the barest minimum in the state.
While recognising and commending the efforts of the 19 Northern State governors for taking the initiative to review the Penal Code, participants at the session lamented the lack of convictions with the high number of prosecutions in cases involving gender-based violence.
The participants also agreed that there is the need for increased sensitization on GBV and the danger of stigmatization and discrimination while calling for the establishment of a referral centre in a heath care facility, where GBV cases are examined free of charge.