Executive Director of Inclusive Friends Association, and Convener of Amplifying Voices project, Grace Jerry, has called for naming and shaming of perpetrators of gender-based violence especially against Persons With Disabilities.
Jerry made this call during the weekend at workshop geared towards strengthening the capacity of 20 young advocates/ leaders with disabilities to spotlight and innovatively address incidences of gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities with support from Ford Foundation.
She lamented the rising cases of violences against those with disabilities while urging the advocates comprising young advocates with and without disabilities, “to champion the process of speaking up against every form of gender and disability-based violence and the project is happening within various states. We are working with 20 advocates persons with and without disabilities.”
Jerry said, “The reason we continue to record issues of violence is because there is this culture of impunity people are not been punished for the crimes they caused if there is public naming and shaming, if there is a public prosecution, violence will definitely be minimised to a bigger level because I know if I get involved in GBV my name and face will be all over the place.
“As Persons With Disabilities, we face discrimination overtime, I’m saying we because I’m also a person with disability spinal cord injury survivor and I’m on a wheel chair. There are over N35 million people with disabilities and that is a huge number. We fight to gain employment even with the presence of disability Act that talks about five per cent employment quota, access to education is a big challenge and here in Gombe State we are pushing for the domestication of disability bill such that people with disabilities will have their rights enshrined.”
On the rate of GBV in the country, Jerry told Periscope Nigeria that gbv against women and girls with disabilities is high, adding “This is because persons with disabilities hardly report, there is this issue of silence. Young women and girls with disabilities are afraid of not being believed when they report and sometimes they will be held liable even for what has happened, for fear of a form of assistance being withdrawn from them they maintain the culture of silence. Some of the perpetrators against the women and girls with disabilities are either family members other caregivers their fear is once they report that this person is violating me support will be withdrawn. The reason we have called for empowerment for women and girls with disabilities because when she is economically empowered she is able to separate herself from her violators when she is well equipped to provide for her needs. It’s under reported and we are calling for more agencies, departments and individuals to work with us as we combat this issue.”
While enumerating challenges impeding punishment of perpetrators, Jerry added, “The justice system needs to be strengthened, the ministry of women affairs needs to make sure that issues of disability is well documented and captured. Both personal aides to PWDs who are advocates are also benefitting from the training so indirectly aides are also trained.”
While commenting on another component of the amplifying voices project, “is the establishment of the inter-agency task force. Members of task force consist of Human Rights Commission, International Federation of Women Lawyers, police, Ministry of Women Affairs, Health, will be interfacing with the young advocates,” she added.
On his part, Task Force Chairman for Amplifying Voices project in Gombe, Ibrahim Yusuf, who doubles as Team Lead Advocacy Centre for Development said his primary role is to coordinate and work with advocates, “Those trained by Inclusive Friends Association to also reach where they can’t reach. When you look at the composition of the Task Force you can see is all inclusive because all Ministries Departments and Agencies as well as relevant civil organisations are in the Task Force. We will work with them to amplify voices of people in the communities to ensure things are done according and perpetrators are punished based on their offences.”
Yusuf who is also Chairman Gombe Network of Civil Society Organisations, while reacting on naming and shaming offenders , Yusuf added, “The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act has been passed in Gombe State but the issue of constituting the committee that will implement and supervise the implementation of the law has not been constituted by the state even if there is such provision in that law on naming and shaming need to have the composition of the people that will work on the law so that it will be implemented accordingly. If there is no such committee definitely the amplification and the implementation will be affected.”
He admonished stakeholders to take the struggle to curbing violence against those with disabilities to be committed, “they should take it religiously we have a duty to deliver. We need to work on behalf of survivors and ensure perpetrators are punished for their crimes,” Yusuf added.
