Edith CHUKU/Gift EREBAH, PH
The Rivers State chapter of the National Human Rights Commission has kicked off the 16 days activism on the elimination of gender-based violence, GBV, against women and girls in Rivers State.
To commemorate this year’s programme, state coordinator of the national human rights commission, Mrs. Chinwe Okoroji and her team, paid a visit to TNN head office, in Port Harcourt.
According to Okoroji, the programme which is slated to run from November 25 to December 10, is aimed at creating awareness on issues around violence against women and girls, with a view to stamp out the prevalence.
The 2022 commemoration of the annual programme tagged “UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls” is expected to inspire women and girls who are victims of any form of violence to speak out, as well as urge relevant stakeholders to unite in the fight to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.
In commemoration of this year’s 16 days activism on gender-based violence, NHRC called for an intensified effort in the fight against sexual and all forms of violence against women and girls in Nigeria.
Okoroji in an interview with TNN reiterated the need for strengthened actions to address the menace. She went further to charge relevant stakeholders to take definite stand against sexual and gender based violence in order to end the menace.
According to her, the 16 days activism held annually, “is the time we always tell people about the maltreatment of girls and women, in particular. This year’s theme is ‘unite’, we are urging all the stakeholders to come together, let us fight all the anomalies melted against the girl child.”
Outlining the activities to mark this year’s event, she said, “today, we started by meeting the media, tomorrow we are likely to meet the commissioner for women affairs, on Monday we will go to the house of assembly, the chief judge and the commissioner of police, all on Monday, after that, we have meetings with children, we will visit two schools, we are also going to invite women, the youth, and then, we will also have media pally which we have also invited you, after that, we now have our Human Right Day, which everybody will come together as we end the programme.”
The state coordinator while describing all forms of violence against women as unholy, also frowned at the increase in the number of complaints received this year. She said, “Internationally, Rivers State has the highest number of domestic violence, in 2021, and even now in 2022, right now, we have over five hundred and something complains. This is because of the way we have been moving around, we’ve been moving around since the year 2020 when we discovered that the COVID has influenced so much in the lives of families, that causes domestic violence and maltreatment of women, instead of divorce and having problems they come and report and we militate and bring families together.”
Encouraging victims to seek justice, Okoroji said, “that is why we are here, we are telling them that there is nothing to be ashamed of, if you cover up today what of your children, what of the generation to come, this is 21st century, there is nothing like speaking up, if you love yourself and you care about humanity, those girls out there, speak up so that these things can be stopped.”
To the chief judge, she said, “when these cases come up, let them speed up actions to make sure that the perpetrators are brought to book as soon as possible, this will help bring this menace to end, if we try to hide, it only makes it worse, and when the corps are not doing what they are supposed to do it discourages so many, let’s unite, we will surely win this fight.”
