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IWD: Group addresses gender imbalance

Anthonia Duru

In commemoration of 2020 International Women’s Day, marginalised groups, Civil Societies Organisations and other stakeholders have gathered to discuss strategies to address the challenges of gender based violence and form a mass movement for changes, reforms and solutions.
Speaking at the Meeting for members of marginalised group and the
celebration of International Women’s Day held recently in Lagos, and organised by the Women Advocates Research
and Documentation Centre (WARDC) in collaboration with UNWOMEN,
Executive Director WARDC Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi said women’s rights
and developmental concerns are still major challenges in Nigeria.

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“Research shows that one in three Nigerian Women are victims of sexual
/gender based violence despite laws against widowhood practices and
concerted efforts to ensure access to Sexual Reproductive Human Rights
(SRHR) has so far not effective, the reality is that the challenges
that women faces in Gender Based Violence (GBV), Harmful Practices(HP) and SRHR are enormous”.
According to her WARDC will be implementing Pillar 6 of the spotlight
Initiative Project in Lagos State which seeks to strengthen capacities
and support CSOs and women movement on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)and target GBV, HP and SRHR. “Our goal is that one year down the line, we will have a gigantic mass movement of CSOs, NGOs and Faith Based Organisation whose collective action will cause changes, reforms and solutions in the battle to eliminate all forms of violence against women and
girls”, she said.
This year’s theme “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s
Rights”, according to the UNWOMEN Representative Mbanuju Kenechukwu
requires collective efforts if we want to end gender based violence.
“We are calling for economic justice and rights for all; bodily
autonomy, sexual/reproductive health and feminist action for climate
justice. We want technology and innovation for gender equality and
feminist leadership”, said Kenechukwu.
Also speaking, a Member,Human Rights Clinic, University of Lagos,
Emmanuel Ubong-Abasi lamented that bulk of issues being handled by the
clinic in the past two years is sexually based adding that there is a
lot of distortions around the issue. “When your rights are violated,
what do you do, while interacting with students, we try to educate
students with the right information”, he said.

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