By Chris Agbo,
One of the leading disability organizations focusing on the rights of women and girls with disabilities, Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC) on Thursday in Abuja made history by launching a handbook that will serve as a guide for women with girls with disabilities to understand their body and their rights.
The event which was her 4th Annual We Are Women Too Convening which also featured a discussion session known as The Parliament (airing SGBV issues of WGWDs), a platform that provided opportunities for SGBV survivors and other participants at the event to engage with Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) service providers on the challenges faced in accessing SGBV services – how to report the cases of violation and where to report the cases and what to do to access justice.
The event is part of DRAC’s Making it Work project supported by Oxfam Voice Nigeria designed to enhance access to Sexual Reproductive Health Rights(SRHR) of women and girls with disabilities.
The Executive Director, DRAC, Dr. Irene Ojiugo Patrick-Ogbogu while answering questions from the press said that the essence of the event is to discuss challenges affecting women and girls with disabilities in order to find solutions on how to address them. DRAC has been engaging with the service providers and the government to review relevant laws in order to make them more disability-inclusive and ensure that implementation is done using a disability lens.
Speaking further, she said that policies and laws are not disability inclusive either from the language used in drafting them which did not take into consideration the peculiar needs of persons with disabilities. In order to ensure disability inclusion, persons with disabilities should be consulted to make input during policy development.
She also said that DRAC is focusing on sexual and gender-based violence as it affects women and girls with disabilities, exploring the exclusion of women and girls with disabilities when it comes to programming in that area.
She emphasized that the government should invest a lot of resources into services that are necessary for people who have survived any form of sexual and gender-based violence. There should be more sexual assault referral centers, where people who have experienced sexual assault can go in and receive necessary services.
A keynote address was delivered by Dr. Toyin Adeyemi, a disability advisor, United Nations Relief and Works Agency. In her address, she spoke about how women and girls with disabilities face multiple discrimination. In Nigeria and Africa, a woman face a lot of discrimination and for a person with disability, it is double discrimination. This has made women and girls with disabilities more vulnerable to sexual and gender based violence. They are disadvantaged economically and services are not readily accessible making to them it difficult for them to report cases of violence against them. Even when they report, they face attitudinal barriers from service providers who don’t believe them or take their cases seriously. These are some of the reasons women and girls with disabilities often times are not able to access justice.
The highpoint of the event was the launching of the handbook on sexual reproductive health rights of women and girls with disabilities which was unveiled by Mr. Lawrence Idemudia, a director at the National Commission for Persons with disabilities who represented the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr. James Lalu at the event. The Executive Director of DRAC, Dr. Irene Patrick-Ogbogu describe the handbook as a guide and resource of information for women and girls with disabilities to understand their body function and their rights when it comes to SRHR.
Mr. Lawrence Idemudia while endorsing the handbook appreciated DRAC for the good work they are doing for persons with disabilities especially women and girls with disabilities. He said that the commission would always collaborate with DRAC in driving disability issues and he also assured that the commission doors are open for other Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) with good ideas.
“Our doors are open, come and share your beautiful ideas with us, we will surely work with you”, Mr. Lawrence explained.
Grace Nsot, Director, International Operation, Legal Aid Council in her solidarity message to DRAC said that disability rights are human rights and their rights needs to be protected. There is a need for the rights of women and girls to be protected but Legal Aid Council can’t sue on your behalf because the specific mandate of Legal Aid Council is to provide free legal services for indigent Nigerians who are in conflict with the law. “So, we are informed about your case, we will monitor the case, provide free legal services for you when necessary”.
CSP Funmi B. Kolawole, O/C Gender SCID, FCT Command, Abuja representing FCT Commissioner of Police, CP Bala Ciroma assured that Nigerian Police is ready to eradicate sexual based violence in Nigeria, any case reported to police, the police will ensure that the perpetrator is brought to book. She pleaded the victims should break the silence because the police are not in cooperative with the perpetrators because “it is a violation of fundamental human rights and whether you are a person with disability or a person without disability, we have the same rights and justice, please ensure that you report any act of violence and the police will ensure that you get justice”.
Many other MDAs, CSOs and OPDs also gave their solidarity messages to DRAC and made commitments towards the fight against SGBV of Women and girls with disabilities.
The event also featured a presentation by Barr. Tsema Okoye on the impact of SGBV on survivors with disability, mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, attempted suicide.
Another highpoint of the event was the Parliament where the survivors and other participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the SGBV service providers and CSOs /experts working on SGBV. The session was moderated by an expert in SRHR, Bukky Williams, the Executive Director, EVA.
Some of the key concerns of the survivors and other participants were; at what point does it establish that rape has occurred, what are the services available for the survivors, how to report and where to report, what to do to ensure that evidence is not lost and when there is loss of evidence, can a case of SGBV still be established, what category of law do SGBV belong and many others.
The Service Providers and the experts provided some insights to the questions, they explained that rape is established when consent is not given, they gave out some contact numbers that victims can reach to access services, they also educated participants on the need for preservation of evidence while a report is being made to the police, they established that SGBV is a state case and even if the survivor fails to charge the perpetrator, the state can take up the case and the perpetrator is punished. They also said that the VAPP Act 2015 should be an important legal instrument that WGWDs should use against those who perpetuate violence against them.
The participants unanimously agreed to adopt zero tolerance to SGBV in Nigeria, women and girls were urged to report all cases of violence against them and they were assured that they will get justice because there are existing laws that will aid the process and there are organizations who can offer them free legal services to ensure them get justice.
There was also a dance drama which showcased different forms of sexual and gender based violence.
The event witnessed the presence of participants from OPDs, CSOs, MDAs and Social activists who graced the occasion to join DRAC celebrate the International Day for Persons with Disabilities and International Human Rights Day.
You will recall that DRAC began marking this year’s 16 days of activism with several activities such as street protest against SGBV, Awareness creation in Markets and Parks in the FCT and Press releases, the Parliament is the activity that marked the closing of the 16-day long activities which DRAC successfully carried out.
Some pictures of the event:
