Good News on Tackling Violence Against Women

If we stay the course and continue to mount pressure on leaders and concerned institutions in Africa, in our advocacy for positive change, we'll definitely get some results. It may come in trickles and sometimes the rate may be frustrating but it is a persistence worth enduring. The message from Abuja, Nigeria, from the National Assembly as reported recently in the Nigeria Tribune is a fitting recognition, by the legislature, of the dangers posed by unchecked violence against women and the vulnerable in the society. The stage is now ripe for intense campaign and awareness programmes on what constitutes violence against women. People, especially women, generally don't talk about sexual violence because of  fear of stigmatization and further victimization by largely an uninformed public predicated on baseless cultural malpractices. There is also urgent need to train the police, members of the judiciary, and other relevant practitioners on the subject of Gender Based Violence especially on management modalities of the various conditions and on the impact on victims, their families and the entire society. In one informal meeting I had with some investigating police officers in Nigeria, all of them were seeing a "Rape Kit" (sexual assault forensic evidence kit), used in the forensic investigation of cases of sexual violence, for the first time! While an enabling law is urgently needed, there is equally a pressing need to begin to equip relevant personnel with the necessary knowledge, skills and facilities to make the law meaningful to the ordinary citizen who may need the protection and services prescribed by such law. Promulgating necessary laws should not be an end by itself but should rather emerge simultaneously with the provision/availability of necessary infrastructure, expertise and resources. In the meantime, we can follow up on "Law to punish violence against women coming soon" to make it a reality, and this effort needs to be replicated in all African countries where there is need to tackle this hydra headed monster of Gender Based Violence from all angles.