The Ebonyi Gender-based Violence (GBV) Taskforce has lamented that non availability of a special court for GBV cases posses challenges to efforts in giving quick justice to victims.
The State’s GBV Task Force Coordinator, made this known Sunday during a quarterly GBV stakeholder Coordinator’s meeting held in Abakaliki, the capital city.
The meeting was organised and funded by the USAID-Integrated Health Programme (USAID-IHP), in collaboration with the state GBV Taskforce.
Nwanchor, also a Focal Person on Gender in the state Ministry of Justice, stated that there was the need to install the court as provided in the Violence Against Persons Prohibition law (VAPP) Law.
According to her, since inception, effective awareness on the dangers of GBV as well as the encouragement for survivors to speak out, had improved.
She also identified the lack of mobility as challenges limiting prompt responses to the matters.
“Our greatest challenge is lack of speedy dispensation of justice. We hope that the GBV court, when set up, will deal with gender-based issues,” Nwanchor said.
Augustine Onwe, the Gender Social Inclusion and Community Engagement Advisor IHP-USAID, said that the programme provides technical supports aimed at addressing all issues of GBV in the state.
Onwe added that the IHP programme is also geared towards eliminating maternal new born, child mortality and mobility in the state.
“We have been providing technical support to the Ministry of Health in the state and intervening in different areas such as maternal health, nutrition, immunisation and implementation of gender social inclusion.
“The idea of the meeting with the critical stakeholders was to find an avenue to continue to make our work better for the society” Onwe said.
Florence Egwu, Focal Personal at One-stop Centre, National Obesteric Fistula Centre, said physical, economic, emotional and sexual violence were major challenges facing the people.
She urged the stakeholders to always enlighten people on the danger and consequences associated with the trend.
She encouraged the stakeholders to show more commitment in reducing GBV to the barest minimum in the state.
Bertha Offor, the Head, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) in Ebonyi, recommended empowerment and building skills of survivors to improve their livelihoods.
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