The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated a committee of experts to come up with a set of strategies for a national response to the increasing prevalence sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the country.
Inaugurating the committee – the inter-ministerial management committee on the eradication of SGBV – the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami said the nation expects members to come up with a holistic solution, while addressing the task from legal, socio-cultural and economic perspectives.
Malami said: “Let me emphasise the point that the central goal of the committee is to carry out a holistic examination of the issue from the legal, socio-cultural and economic perspectives.
“The committee is to develop and implement effective approaches to prevent SGBV and scale up the responses to this crime by relevant MDAs when they occur with a view to ultimately eradicating it as a threat to our society.”
The committee’s members are drawn from relevant government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), including international development parties and civil society organisations.
The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu, who is a member of the committee, hailed the initiative and pledged his commitment.
Ojukwu added: “We are optimistic that the committee will have a well-coordinated approach on the issues of prevention, risk mitigation, and multi-sectorial response to the menace and promote a crucial intervention that will impact the lives of all concerned.”
Malami identified the committee’s terms of reference to include:
*To conduct a review of all the existing laws and policy instruments touching on offences of rape, child defilement and gender-based violence for adequacy, and a situation analysis to understand and propose necessary legislative changes to bridge the gaps between policy and implementation of the requisite counter-measures.
*Develop, for adoption, a national prevention of sexual abuse/violence strategy for the period 2021-2025 that identifies and encapsulates measures to enhance response to rape and gender-based violence cases, set new targets for prevention, intervention, and treatment, and define clear institutional responsibility matrix for all relevant stakeholders across the Nation.
*Develop a comprehensive framework for speedy, effective front-line service providers’ response to gender-based violence cases that will ensure rapid, comprehensive investigations and preservation of evidence to support successful prosecutions of all cases of gender-based violence.
*Develop a framework for the improved enrolment, management and utilisation of the Sexual Offenders Registry in the country.
*Develop and implement a coordinated nationwide enlightenment and awareness campaign against gender-based violence to raise awareness of SGBV issues among stakeholders, survivors and members of the public; and improve collaboration with all the stakeholders, local NGOs, CSOs in the nation.
*Effectively coordinate the activities of existing multi sectoral State level response teams where available and to establish state level GBV management structures where this is not available.
*Develop a framework for the establishment and operation of Sexual Assault Referral Centres to provide appropriate treatment/support services to ensure that victims and survivors of gender-based violence/abuse are not subjected to further stigmatisation and trauma.
*Develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation framework/plan for measuring the effective performance of the GBV Committee.
*Develop and adopt an implementation plan/road map including funding and budgetary interventions, for the effective execution of the strategy and achievement of the set objectives.
