Human Rights of Women
Source: Daily Trust
On Wednesday, the Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) celebrated the end of the Raising Her Voice Project (RHV) in the country.
Raising Her Voice Project is a portfolio of projects in 17 countries across the world and focuses on improving governance and transparency by recognizing and increasing significant contribution poor women can make to public life and in promoting their own rights.
In 2008, WRAPA with support from Oxfam GB began the process of facilitating coordinated efforts towards the accelerated domestication of the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women as well as the promotion of grassroots women's participation in governance in Nigeria through the Raising Her Voice (RHV) project.
From 2008- February 2013, WRAPA in According to the Secretary-General of WRAPA and Project Director of Raising her Voice, Hajiya Saudatu Mahdi , the idea of the project was conceived from the yearnings and aspirations of African women to see the AU Protocol come to life and be adequately represented and participate in decision making processes which affects their lives and the society in which they live. " From these yearning, SOAWR, a coalition that WRAPA belongs and Oxfam articulated a project which would not only benefit women but also ensure their voices are heard and taken into account."
She said from 2008-date the RHV project has gained a lot of strides and achieved great milestones saying as the celebrate the end of the project she and her team are already asking what happens next, "How can we ensure the gains of the project are sustained and expanded?"
Highlight of the event was the launching and disseminating of the project's Evaluation Report and Brochure. The project engaged an external consultant to evaluate it as it gradually came to a close, in June 2012. The Consultant, Johnson Ayoola in his summary of the report said the project recorded milestones in legislative advocacy, women's rights activism particularly that which has women raising their voices to seek redress from discrimination and violence, increasing the levels of individual and social intolerance for GBV, expansion of stake holding by men in the fight against Gender Based Violence (GBV), enhanced institutional responses to GBV victims in hospitals, at police station, in courts and welfare departments and churches.
He said though the AU Protocol has not been achieved , a national integral Bill the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill put together by the NCAA in partnership with other platforms of several non -governmental actors is now ready for transmission to the National Assembly while it has already been passed by State Houses of Assembly.
Director of the Coalition of Men Against Violence Against Women (VAW), Mr Martins Obono in his key note address said as the project ends we must all raise our voice against VAW. He said each time a man raises his voice against Violence Against Women, he is saving the life of a woman somewhere. He said one of the gains of the RHV project to him is the Violence against Persons Bill presently in the National Assembly.
Testifying about the project, a traditional ruler from Kaduna U/Rimi, Sarki Maina Mohammed Dikko said it helped create awareness in his domain. He said it also helped him stop discriminatory inheritance practice against women saying even though Religion allows women some level of inheritance in deceased properties they are still discriminated and cheated by some people during the process. The traditional ruler said the project also helped stopped the high rate of divorce and violence against women and encouraged girl child education in his domain.
Some pastors working in Mangu, local Government Area of Plateau state said there was the practice of forcing girls to marry any man who impregnates them there. They said most times the girls are made to marry, very young boys without means of livelihood. So the girls have to stop school and both the boys and girls will have be going home to their parents and back to collect food items or the girl will join the boy in his parent's house. He said the project aided them in the fight against the practice as they created awareness that a pregnant girl can still be rehabilitated and go to school after delivery instead of being forced to marry and living in destitute.
Representatives of the National Council of Women Society (NCWS) at the event also expressed gratitude for the way the project has touched the lives of Nigerian women in giving them voice and enhancing their political participation.