From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
To stop violence against women and girls, the United Nations has urged for coordinated efforts and intensified measures.
The call was made during a high-level Orange the World Ceremony and the Lighting of the UN House in Abuja to mark the 16 Days of Activism for 2022.
The global theme of the 16 Days of Activism for 2022 is; “ UNiTE! Activism To End Violence Against Women and Girls!”
The United Nations leverages the annual 16 Days of Activism campaign to draw attention to the need for concerted action towards preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls.
The event was aimed to strengthen partnerships to end violence against women and girls among UN agencies, and partners, while increasing visibility and public support for the local efforts to end violence against women and girls.
UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, while explaining the official orange lighting of the UN Building, said that violence against women in the home usually involves the abuse of children and other household members, which needs collaborative efforts to end the menace.
“The light initiative is integral to the UN Women and the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign and is used to “symbolize a brighter future without violence.” The “orange” comes from the fire ignited by the many women’s groups dedicated to combating violence against women around the world. We call on our partners to join us in promoting the orange campaign throughout the 16 days and beyond so as to galvanize more support to end violence against women and girls. We must sustain the momentum for a brighter future where men and women, girls and boys enjoy equal rights, devoid of discrimination and all forms of violence.
“We appreciate the generous contributions from our donors, government partners and implementing partners for the continuous support to UN Women and other UN agencies in designing and implementing several strategic and result-oriented programmes and projects, which have in many ways contributed in dealing with menace of Gender-Based Violence. These include strengthening the capacity of institutions and individuals, at both formal and informal settings to prevent and effectively respond to all forms of gender-based violence. This period provides a chance to shine a spotlight on the global scourge of violence against women and girls, our commitment to ending gender-based violence should be continuous, year-round”.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, called for more partnership and coordination to address the menace.
He advocated the need for large-scale investments in data collection, evidence gathering, and provision of legal support services to ensure access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence.
According to him, more initiatives are required to scale up current actions to eliminate harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, sexual violence, and domestic violence.
“We must also pool resources to protect women and girls in humanitarian settings including those affected by the recent catastrophic flooding. with the upcoming 2023 elections, we need greater efforts toward ensuring that women in politics are protected against all forms of violence and discrimination. We need women participating in political life and making decisions for themselves and others.”
The Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, identified culture of silence, impunity, cultural stereotypes, failures of law enforcement agents to properly investigate rape cases, toxic ingrained prejudice against women and insufficient support for survivors as challenges to the success of the fight against sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) in the country.
Represented by the Director of Women Development Department of the ministry, Funke Oladipo, she lamented that enough actions have not been taken to tackle rape cases in Nigeria with the seriousness it deserves.
She added that despite Federal Government’s declaration of “State of emergency” on sexual and gender-based violence, rape has persisted, adding that it is now at crisis level, with most survivors denied justice and rapists are able to avoid prosecution while hundreds of cases of rape are happening, but unreported due to stigma and victim’ blaming.
The Head of EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Samuela Isopi, noted that candidate and political parties should be encouraged to prioritized gender equality and the fight against gender based violence
“The EU, UN Spotlight initiative has develop and will launched the first GBV accountability Tracker. This is the moment to take stock of the progress towards ahead. Sustainability and consolidation result and sustained high level commitment will be the key word, especially as Nigeria will be transitioning towards a new administration. As we go towards the general election, it is important that we engage with candidate and political parties and that we encouraged candidate and political parties to continue to prioritized gender equality and the fight against GBV. EU will continue to support the government and all stakeholders that are committed in the fight against GBV. A new programme will be on the lessons of spotlight, focusing on supporting the key gaps on GBV response, the support will be part of the wider EU Commitment to Genders equality in all its expenditures. While the EU gender priority will include women’s political empowerment and participation to gender equality programmes. Let’s all unite to say no to GBV, but lets do it not only toady but during the 16 days. This the fight that we have to continue every single day of the year”.
The event also featured a short documentary video entitled, “We made it” to spotlight gender-based violence, which was exhibited to the audience.
The high point of the event was the official lighting of UN Building with orange colour to officially commemorate the event.