By Luminous Jannamike Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, said it recorded a total of 4,000 complaint calls from victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the past nine months.

NHRC’s Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu (Esq.) disclosed this in a report detailing the Commission’s effort towards addressing the problem of rape and SGBV in the country, presented during a high-level stakeholders’ mandate and commitment meeting in Abuja.

The engagement, which was organized in collaboration with the Dinidari Foundation and supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, focused on effective referrer pathways, victims’ assistance, and accountability for SGBV.

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Ojukwu also said that the Commission, through the Presidential Panel on SGBV, had resolved a total of 230 cases satisfactorily.

He said, “The Emergency Communications Centre, through the 112-toll free number for reporting SGBV and other human rights abuses, has recorded 4,000 calls since it started operation under nine months ago. Also, the Presidential Panel of Investigation on SGBV has had two rounds of sittings across different states of the Federation to consider over 230 cases with success stories.”

Ojukwu further said the Commission had also developed a manual and trained stakeholders in integrating female genital mutilation indicators into the reporting mechanism for human rights monitors to capture data on the menace and also improve quality reporting.   

He, however, regretted that as effective as the efforts of the NHRC and many others by well-meaning stakeholders might have been, cases of sexual and gender-based violence have continued to increase across the country.

“The only plausible conclusion from this state of affairs is that they still fall far short of the desired protection for the victims and survivors of SGBV,” he stated.

Speaking also, the Executive Director of Dinidari Foundation, Ms. Ndi Kato, said that despite the high incidences of sexual and gender-based violence in the country and the associated impacts on victims, SGBV victims have a low reportage and help-seeking behaviour.

“Only 32 percent of women who have been victims of violence sought help, and help was mainly sought through victims own family.  This is the result of prevailing cultural norms that discourage reportage as well as shortcomings in the justice framework. The informal means of seeking through family and community heads dampen SGBV response outlook in Nigeria.

“Nigeria needs to do better in collaboration towards response to sexual and gender-based violence in our society. For this reason, we acknowledge that our society respects our traditional and religious institutions. So, on the fight against SGBV, we must also work hand-in-hand with leaders who represent these institutions,” Ms. Kato said.

According to her, these were what gave birth to the Foundation’s current intervention.

She added, “Every agency has a role to play,  some agencies may think they are not at the forefront of sexual and gender-based violence response, but indeed, everyone is and should be front and centre.”

Vanguard News Nigeria