By Gabriel Olawale

To stem the tide of Gender-Based Violence, GBV in Nigeria and ensure survivors of the act get appropriate services and legal representation, the Centre for Women’s Health and Information, CEWHIN in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Lagos State Team has trained Legal Aid Counsels, Pro bono Lawyers and officers of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice on integrated approaches to justice.

“The training was implemented with the support of the United Nations Development programme under the Spotlight Initiative. The Spotlight Initiative is a global, multi-year partnership between European Union and United Nations to eliminate violence against women and girls, sexual and gender-based violence, harmful practices as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights. “The Initiative is so named as it brings focused attention to this issue, moving it into the spotlight and placing it at the centre of efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Speaking during the two-days training workshop in Lagos, Program Officer for CEWHIN, Ms. Judith Agada said that the cases of violence against women and girls are on the rise and in most cases when survivors approach the legal system for justice they are confronted with many challenges, hence the need for a coordinated response and referral pathway for handling cases of GBV.

“Findings of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2018) revealed that 31 percent of women age 15-49 have experienced physical violence and 9 percent have experienced sexual violence, while 6 percent of women have experienced physical violence during pregnancy.

“The experience of spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence among ever-married women is as high as 36 percent. This figure is a huge increase compared to 2013 (25 percent) and 2008 (31 percent) figures. Furthermore, 29 percent of ever-married women who have experienced spousal physical or sexual violence have sustained injuries such as cuts, bruises, aches or deep wounds.”

Ms. Judith admonished legal practitioners to work towards GBV prevention, protection and prosecution, as ending violence against women and girls requires the involvement of everyone at all levels in society.

Corroborating her views, on the adoption of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on prevention and response to Gender-based violence in Lagos State, Executive Secretary, Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, DSVA, Ms. Titilola Vivour Adeniyi said that the idea behind the SOP was to serve as a guide for legal practitioners in response to incidence of GBV.

“We discovered there was a gap in responding to issues of GBV in Lagos by legal practitioners so CEWHIN in partnership with DSVA jointly developed this SOP to serve as protocol response in managing cases of GBV especially as it relates to provision of legal support. What we have now is a document that talks about SGBV and referral, legal provision that survivors can take advantage of”

On his part, the Lagos State Coordinator of NHRC, Mr. Lucas Koyejo admonished Nigerians to desist from blaming survivors of GBV says they deserve all the support.
He attributed increasing cases of GBV reporting in the state to zero tolerance and the availability of support systems along with political will by the Lagos State government.