Stand up to ensure dignity and justice for women and girls—Kallon

As the 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence kicked off on 25 November, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator of the UN system in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon, has urged everyone to stand up to ensure dignity and justice for the most marginalised, especially women and girls.

He spoke at the UN Women Nigeria Programme on the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act: From Domestication to Implementation, held at Fraiser Suites Abuja on Thursday, 25 November.

“Now, more than ever, we must ensure to always say no to violence against women and girls. Lets stand together to ensure dignity and justice for women.” Mr. Kallon said, and further called for synergy on the implementation of the VAPP Act.

“Women and girls continue to be exposed to various forms of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and barriers in access to justice. We must use this opportunity to review the success of the implementation of the VAPP through strategic partnership, sensitization and promotion of women leadership in decision making.” He explained.

The Resident Coordinator charged all stakeholders to continue to build on the foundation of the transformation and realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria and the 2030 target.

The First Lady of Kebbi State, Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu expressed her delight that finally the VAPP Act has been passed into law in Kebbi. She disclosed that it was not a smooth sail for the VAPP Act as there were many challenging moments for the Governor, herself, and the leadership of the House of Assembly, but at the end there was a desired result.

Dr. Shinkafi-Bagudu, noted that all the 36 state of Nigeria and the FCT, have been very active in addressing issue of sexual and gender based violence.

“In terms of awareness, in terms of creating more facilities, in terms of capacity building, passing the appropriate laws, we have seen an unprecedented increase in the activities that will help reduce the scourge of sexual and gender base violence.” She added.

UN Women Country Representative in Nigeria, Ms. Comfort Lamptey, explained that there was need for more efforts  to address gender related violence especially in North-East Nigeria and other parts of the country which had being facing challenges of insecurity .

She explained that “UN Women supported efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the North East through targeted programming around livelihood support and early recovery for women and girls; a broader transition from humanitarian relief to longer-term recovery and development; GBV prevention and protection for conflict-affected women and girls; and the improvement of conflict-affected women’s access to justice.”