Justice For All, in collaboration with Civil Society Groups on Tuesday launched the handbook on “Guidelines For Responding to cases of violence against women.”
The event, which took place in Lagos, was attended by government officials, nongovernmental agencies for women’s rights, the National Human Rights Commission, the police and other rights based agencies.
The guidelines, according to Jeff Ansell, the Justice For All Component Manager, is in line with the British Government DFID initiative to provide inclusive governance for all Nigerians.
Ansell said: “The guidelines for responding to cases of violence against women is in line with one of our four component programmes by the United Kingdom DFID programmes in Nigeria. The five-year programme will see Justice For All working with the federal and state governments, with Lagos State as one of the five states to benefit from the programme.
“The issue of violence against women is receiving attention in Nigeria but this is not enough. Even in the United Kingdom, we are not there yet and in Nigeria there is the need to do more to create inclusiveness and a gender based system where women will have equal rights in the justice system. Women need the system to work for them.”
Ansell added that a recent research by the British Council shows that there are increasing cases of violence against women as one out of three women are victims of one form of violence.
The Lagos State Deputy Governor, Adejoke Adefuilre, who was represented at the event, stated that the Lagos State Government does not treat violence against women with kid gloves.
Adefuilre added that the government agencies have been equipped to check cases of violence against women and such should not be treated as a domestic issue by police officers.
The eight civil society organisations, which contributed to the drafting of the guideline are BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Legal Defence and Assistance Project, Media Concern Initiative for Women and Children, Partnership for Justice, Project Alert on Violence Against Women, West Africa Network For Peace Building.
Others included Women’s Consortium of Nigeria and the Women Rights and Health Project.
The guidelines, which were developed by a group of the eight Civil Society Groups, with the support of the DFID-funded Justice For All, is to provide Civil Society Organistions that will assist and support victims of gender-based violence with a standard framework for responding to the needs of victims.
The framework, according to Justice For All, is aimed at taking care of the needs of the victims that will enable a broad, common response to violence against women cases across the state
These guidelines involve nine stepsm which will cover critical areas such as the initial reception of victims, medical assistance, interaction with the police, legal process, safety, basic counselling, knowledge management and publicity when requested by the victims.
Itoro Eze-Anaba, the Managing Partner for Justice for All, stated that to deal with gender based violence, there is the need for men to become actively involved in campaigns against it.
Eze-Anaba said: “Men are the perpetrators of violence against women. They are also the policy makers and enforcement officers. So we need to channel our messages to men and it is sad that when you bring men together and talk about violence, they trivialise it. In some countries, they have men based organisations against gender based violence but we don’t have such in Nigeria and this is not helping the fight against gender-based violence.”
Mauzi Segun, the South West Coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission, stated that women should be their sisters keepers.
Segun said: “It’s sad to note that women are also perpetrators of violence against their fellow women. Men have this connection and espirit de corp but women see themselves as rivals and a threat due to jealous,y they ignore each others needs, while some women are ready to stomach their pains. This is the paradox: It is time women begin to unite as one in the fight against gender based violence.”
The guidelines can be applied in response to all forms of violence against women in private or public situations.
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