The Federal Government, on Thursday, inaugurated an Inter-Ministerial Management Committee on Eradication of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) to carry out a holistic examination of the issue from the legal, socio-cultural and economic perspective.
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While inaugurating the committee, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) said sexual-based violence, which is a prevalent global problem is a grave violation of the human rights of victims as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria and prohibited by several domestic laws and international human rights instruments.
Malami, among others, charged the committee to develop and implement effective approaches to prevent and scale-up the responses to sexual and gender-based violence by relevant MDAs when they occur with a view to ultimately eradicating it as a threat to the society.
He said the enormity of SGBV calls for a targeted approach and concerted effort of all relevant stakeholders and added that members of the committee were carefully selected to come up with lasting solutions to SGBV in the country.
Malami said a study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner violence.
“The dramatic increase in the incidence of SGBV has generated public outcry and resulted in it being described as a pandemic within pandemic.
“This excruciating impact of SGBV is not limited to only victims and their families but also involves devastating social and economic costs to our nation,” Malami explained.
In his speech, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Tony Ojukwu, said the setting up of the committee followed a resolution of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for a national call to action on Rape and SGBV.
He said the NHRC, which has the mandate for the protection of human rights in Nigeria has taken the bull by the horns through sustained campaign and demand for accountability from various stakeholders for violation in relation to rape and SGBV.
The NHRC boss said he was optimistic that the committee will have a coordinated approach on the issues of prevention, risk mitigation and multi-sectoral response to the menace and promote a crucial intervention that will impact the lives of all concerned.
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