The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has called for a renewed effort to end the scourge of Gender Based Violence (GBV), in Kano state.
The Centre noted that there is an urgent need for all stakeholders in the state to join forces together to put an end to the menace.
This was made known by the Centre’s Gender Technical Assistant, Zainab Aminu while addressing newsmen on the need to carpet the challenges of gender-based violence on Wednesday in Kano.
The statement revealed that “CSOs and the government have committed and recommitted to ending all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence”. “Yet, rape, sexual harassment and sexual abuse amongst others are everyday violent occurrences — affecting hundreds of thousands of women and girls over their lifetimes. We must renew efforts to end this scourge”.
The Centre noted with dismay how rape and other forms of gender-based violence inflict huge economic, political and social losses to individuals, households, and nation-states, and continue to be an obstacle to achieving equity, development, peace as well as to the fulfillment of women and girls’ human rights.
Zainab Aminu said “Over the last two months, we received a total of 276 cases of gender-based violence through our monitoring App. Eighteen (18) of these cases were of rape whereby most of the victims were girls with one male victim, 121 of the cases were of Sexual Harassment, 58 was Sexual Abuse, 47 was Online Harassments, 18 was Sexual Blackmail, 12 was Wife Battering and 1 case was of beating of a female by her nephew. This has highlighted the pervasive nature and of this crime in the state”.
Aminu further noted that, “In order to end rape and other forms of gender-based violence, we must invest in prevention, by addressing the root causes of the problem. We must ensure that those who commit rape are brought to justice and thus end impunity”.
“While it is encouraging that the Government is making notable progress to address these crimes, more needs to be done given the challenge ahead of us”. “As part of our Civic Responsibilities, we are committed to working with other stakeholders including civil society organizations and the private sector to support the Government to make a much faster progress in this area”.
The Centre recommended thus;
“The most important message that the governments should provide is zero tolerance for violence against women and children,
“The government should set up public awareness campaigns, particularly those targeted at men and boys. It is important to involve men and boys as part of the solution to promote non-violence,
“Preventive measures also requires engagement of families, communities and community gate-keepers such as traditional and religious leaders and men and boys in efforts to transform social norms and attitudes towards prevention of violence against women and girls,
“Individuals, as well as local communities, need to be vigilant; understand what is happening in the neighborhood and respond promptly by alerting relevant security services when they suspect that a family member, friend and/or neighbor is falling victim of violence,
“It is important for the society to understand that gender-based violence not only has negative consequences for women and girls but also for their families, for their community and for their country at large. For instance, it has an impact on the judicial and healthcare sector. Many survivors are not able to work so it also causes losses in productivity which has an impact on the national budgets as well as the overall development of the country”.