Ene Sarah Unobe Esq is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Centre For Human Rights Non Violence and Safety Awareness (ICHRNVSA). She is a certified humanitarian expert , global peace ambassador , awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Humanitarian Studies , She is the author ‘’ Gender based violence and related offences , prevention, protection and prosecution’’. She is also the Principal Partner Ene Sarah Unobe and Co,Legal Practitioners and Solicitors established in 2017. In this interview, Barr Unobe reveals why there are increase cases of gender based violence against women and girls in spite of the laws, policies by the government. She also reveals the cultural and religious realities of Nigeria that prevent the full implementation of the laws against GBV.
Tell us about your work
We receive and defend human rights complaints, engage, empower and educate the community on human rights protection and provisions. We engage in advocacy, community based advocacy, inter-government and inter-agency advocacy, collaboration and partnership in line with best global practice as stated by the United Nations NGO principles and engagements.
What is your view on the gender based situation in Nigeria?
Gender – based violence against women in Nigeria is very disturbing. Although, due to advocacy and pressure from community based organizations, national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have been on the fore front of the fight for women and girls’ rights in Nigeria, there has been landmark legislation to protect women. In spite of this increase in legislation that protect women, it is very surprising that the spate of gender based violence against women in Nigeria is increasing. As we increase our laws that protect women and punish offenders, it seems as if the laws are not deterring the offenders and the communities from engaging in acts of violence against women. This also calls for research. Punishment and laws are meant to reduce crime, unfortunately what I have seen in my line of advocating for women’s rights, the more laws we have, the more violence we are having against women.
Are the laws not strong enough to protect women?
Do the offenders know that the laws are in place? So why are they daring the laws and still committing this act of violence against women? Why is violence against women increasing in spite of the national laws and state laws that protect women? The constitution of Nigeria, Section 34 of the constitution protects everyone from degrading treatments. Gender based violence, domestic violence or sexual based violence is a degrading and dehumanized treatment of a man against a woman or a woman against a man.
From your findings, who is more at risk of gender based violence?
Although Gender based violence affects men and women, it is usually the women that are the most affected by gender based violence because women are vulnerable due to their body frame , their nature which makes them not as strong as the men and enshrined cultural practices that have defined their roles and ideology. Apart from Chapter 4 of the Constitution that defines the fundamental human rights of all persons, because women’s rights are human rights , every rights that are made available should be equally accessible to women . Unfortunately, this is not the case; sometimes, some of these rights are enjoyed by men due to patriarchy.
What are these laws?
The United Nations has adopted many instruments to protect human rights, including declarations, treaties, and conventions. Declarations include Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): Adopted in 1948, this was the first legal document to protect universal human rights. It’s considered the foundation of international human rights law. Treaties and conventions include International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): Adopted in 1966, this treaty establishes rights such as freedom of expression and equality before the law. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR): Adopted in 1966, this treaty establishes rights such as the right to work, social security, and education. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): Adopted in 1979. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Adopted in 1989. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Adopted in 2006.
Regional human rights instruments that protect women and girls against violence include: Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa .Also known as the Maputo Protocol, this 2003 treaty addresses issues of particular importance in Africa, such as genital mutilation. Inter-American Convention on the Prevention Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women .Also known as the Convention of Belem do Para, this 1994 treaty addresses violence against women. Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence .This 2011 treaty is legally binding. African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (the Banjul Charter). This 1981 treaty generally addresses the protection of the fundamental human rights of women and girls. Kampala Declaration on Prevention of Gender-based Violence in Africa Adopted in 2003 by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).The UN General Assembly also adopts biannual resolutions on violence against women. Other international instruments include: The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action Security Council Resolution 1820 (2008).Nigeria has a number of laws that address domestic violence, including the Violence Against Persons’ Prohibition Act (VAPP) and state laws.
In Nigeria, we have federal laws which are Violence Against Persons’ Prohibition Act (VAPP) passed in 2015 to outlaw and penalize domestic violence, sexual abuse, and rape. It applies in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, and some states have adopted it. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) .This act allows married women to seek criminal proceedings against their husbands. The Nigerian Evidence Act (EA) .This act provides some legal remedies for women in marriages. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN).This constitution states that everyone deserves respect and freedom from torture or degrading treatment.
State laws include :Lagos State Protection Against Domestic Violence Law, 2007 ,Ebonyi State Protection Against Domestic Violence Law, 2007 ,Ekiti State Gender Based Violence Law, 2011.Cross River Domestic Violence and Maltreatment of Widows’ Prohibition Law, 2014.The Policies include National Gender Policy 2021 – 2026, the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour 2021 – 2025. However, despite the abundance of these laws and policies , the lack of political will to ensure the implementation of these laws among economic , cultural and socio- cultural factors still see the prevalence of GBV on the rise in Nigeria.
Why are the laws not deterring gender based violence?
Culture seems to play a better role than legislation when it comes to the issue of violence against women. Most of these legislation are made and forced on the community to accept it. While the culture says one thing, the legislation is saying another thing. In getting the legislation passed, how many cultural, religious organizations were carried along? There is apathy towards these legislation because the legislation are infringing on the cultural practices which see women as second class citizen. The patriarchal custom that sees the male child as the heir that bears the family name and so he is more eminent than the girl child is still being upheld in Nigeria. The payment of dowry which is seen as the purchase of a woman from her family that gives a man the exclusive rights to keep her makes the man the head of the home and therefore there is no partnership between a man and a woman in a marriage. These kind of cultural practices do not have strong advocacy against them but are accepted as ‘’ African culture’’, than the legislation. The promoters of these culture have refused to embrace these legislation that prohibit them from continuing in these evil practices. What about the widow’s rights? Till date , most culture believe that a widow must be treated the way the culture stipulates, of hear wearing black clothes , remaining in a room for a period of up to forty days and not going anywhere so as to show that she is mourning her late husband and she must look haggard and miserable. The law is weak in going after the persons who promote and adhere to this type of harmful cultural practices against women. Even women themselves when you tell them that there are laws that prevent them from going through these rituals, they will tell you no I want to mourn my husband in the cultural way. Moreover, she must take the man’s corpse to the village where the promoters of these harmful cultural practices reside and hold sway. She will tell you that if I do not mourn my husband in the cultural way, they will point fingers at me as the person that killed him. My husband’s people can ostracize me and all of these fears will make her to abide by the culture instead of the legislation. You see where the problem lies? You see why the legislation are not working? You can see the sharp reality versus the legislation. Also, take the issue of equality, the culture permits the man to have more than one wife and some religions too. So when a woman even notices that her husband is cheating on her, she will not complain. She will have to accept it as him being a man; what about the culture of wife beating? How many times do traditional rulers punish men for beating their wives? We are in a culture where polygamy is as legit as one man one wife so a place where a woman is contending with seven other women, there is competition and this fans the man’s ego as being a superior being to women. There is need for her not to insist on certain rights because if she insists that she has to be treated in a certain way, the husband will leave her and go and take another wife and nothing will happen. She will be at the receiving end. She can be kicked out of her husband’s house for being troublesome or even kept there and be relegated to the background because culture allows men to marry more wives but the culture does not permit women to marry more than one husband. So if the woman should say I want us to discuss as partners, the man will say no we are not partners I paid your dowry and I have the last say. You must obey what I say. Husbands are not seen as partners to their wives but the head of their wives and her owner and commander in charge of their wives. If men see women as properties, then they will treat them as properties. This kind of culture is still being practiced in Nigeria. So when the culture says a man owns his wife and the law says man and women are equal, then there is confusion and contradiction. Bear in mind that anytime there is a contradiction between culture and legislation, culture seems to have an upper hand than legislation.
How can this issue be addressed?
The government can make a law but if the people do not accept that law and practice that law, the law will remain in the bookshelves and will not find its ways on our street. It is when you practice the law, that its becomes a culture and when its becomes a culture, it become sanctionable by the people and not the government. The government is going about telling people to report cases of violence but are they not aware that the woman culturally or the man culturally cannot report her husband to the police? Such woman or man will be called to the village meetings and the woman will be reprimanded for daring to report her husband to the police. She can be ostracized, relegated to the background if she insists on forging ahead with the prosecution of the case. The woman that is the victim will be further victimized, blamed and punished for following what the law says instead of what the culture dictates. Whereas the man who inflicts such grievous injury on the wife will not be punished by the culture. He can only get a warning, a reprimand to stop such act in the future. In our culture can a woman arrest her husband, prosecute him and send him to prison? Even when she tells her family that she has reported the man over and over again to no avail, they will still say is she the only person whom her husband beats? She is stubborn, the woman is expected to tolerate her husband’s abuse and that is what makes her a good wife . So the culture is closer to the people than the legislation of the government and people are well aware of these harmful cultural practices but the government legislation are not known and where they are known, they are disdained because people are tied to their culture and have a sense of belonging within cultural spaces.
