Parent, guardians and caregivers have been called upon to pay close attention to the people their children relate with in order to reduce the rate of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the society.
Deputy Coordinator Coalition of Eastern NGOs Emem Okon, made this call during a one-day media training on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR’s) and gender-based violence, held in Port Harcourt.
According to her, statistics gender report of 2012 shows that one in every three women between ages of 15-24 experiences violence daily, stressing that the public should make use of the gender-sensitive laws available to address cases of GBV.
She also said that the violence is mostly perpetrated by close relatives and friends.
“Violence against women is on the increase in the society and there is a need to address it. We need to take up litigation actions that will punish the perpetrators, so when someone wants to commit an act of violence, the person will think twice.
‘’Parents need to pay more attention to their girl child. Most of the violence is committed by people these girls are used to in the home, people you think wouldn’t do such a thing are the ones that exploit these relationships and not strangers. So we need to pay attention to brothers at home, uncles, family friends, neighbours on how they relate to our girls and wards at home.
“And when it is exposed, we shouldn’t hide it, but bring it up to help reduce the re-occurrence of such incidences‘’
On her part, State Coordinator Coalition of Eastern NGOs, Barrister Dunka David, urged media practitioners to increase awareness of the youth and women on sexual and reproductive health rights through their various mediums.
‘’it is our intention to make gender-based violence more visible through the media, influencing the society to acknowledge it as a problem and to put pressure on policymakers to legislate against it and where legislation already exists, to enforce such legislation.
“We, therefore, urge the media to join the movement to end GBV and advance the SRHRs of the youth and women through features, analysis and understanding of the psychologies of gender-based violence in a way that will improve readers understanding of both the actions and reactions of the survivor and the perpetrator”
