On Tuesday, March 8, 2016, the entire world marked the International Women’s Day. It is a day set aside by the United Nations (UN) to reflect on issues concerning women. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, reports.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is held annually on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements in history and across nations. It is also known as the UN’s Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
Much progress has been made to protect and promote women’s rights in recent times, but nowhere in the world can they claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men.
According to the UN, majority of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor are women. On the average, women receive between 30 and 40 per cent less pay than men for the same work. Women also continue to be victims of violence, with rape and domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability and death among women worldwide.
The IWD is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.
The theme for IWD 2016 was ‘Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up For Gender Equality’.
For the UN, the idea of this theme was to consider how to accelerate the 2030 agenda, building momentum for effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote life-long learning. It was also intended to focus on new commitments under UN women’s Step It Up initiative and other existing commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment and rights.
Some key targets of the 2030 agenda include to ensure that all girls and boys complete primary and secondary education free, leading to relevant goals for effective learning outcomes; to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood and development, care and pre-primary education.
Other targets are to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere; eliminate all forms of violence against them, including trafficking, sexual and other types of exploitation and eliminate all harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).
Concern of UN scribe
In his message to mark the 2016 IWD, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said: “Let us devote solid funding, courageous advocacy and unbending political will to achieving gender equality around the world. There is no greater investment in our common future.”
In Nigeria…
In Nigeria, various civil society organisations (CSOs) and women groups marked the 2016 IWD in various ways. The Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development was not left out.
Also, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) marked the event with Nigerian women. Its country director for Nigeria and UNAIDS Focal Point for ECOWAS, Dr. Bilali Camara, while congratulating the Nigerian women on the occasion said she was privileged to meet the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, to discuss the important role of women in Nigeria’s fight against the AIDS epidemic.
“I have reached agreement with Senator Aisha Alhassan that we need to mainstream HIV/AIDS in gender programming, so as to end AIDS by 2030,” Camara said. “UNAIDS is determined to work with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to make things happen.”
Also speaking, UNAIDS executive director, Michel Sidibe, reaffirmed the commitment of the organisation to achieving full respect for women’s rights both as a moral obligation and as a keystone for a safer, fairer and healthier world.
“Empowering this generation of women and girls and closing the gender gap is a central component of the Sustainable Development Goals, and is crucial to ending AIDS epidemic by 2030,” Sidibe said.
IWD in Lagos
Marking the IWD in Lagos, a group known as Women Empowerment and Legal Aid (WELA) expressed worry over the rise in the violation of women’s rights in the country. Members of the group marched from the Ikeja High Court to Allen Avenue Roundabout to mark the event.
Speaking to newsmen on the occasion, the founder of the organisation who is also a lawyer, Mrs. Funmi Falana, said despite the Child’s Rights Law, which stipulates seven years imprisonment for offenders, cases of violation of women’s rights continue to increase unabated.
She cited a recent incident of Ese Oruru who was abducted from Bayelsa State, forced into marriage and was impregnated. The abductor is currently standing trial in Port Harcourt.
“Child marriage is a crime. The laws are available, but the fact is that there is no diligent prosecution of such cases,” she lamented. “The public should speak out, so that NGOs can take up their cases, and the judiciary should be more on alert.”
In sponsoring and supporting community programme which benefits the rural dwellers, ActionAid intervenes in the development of projects that benefit women, children, families and communities.
According to 42-year-old Mrs. Liatu from Lasadar community in Gombe State who is a beneficiary of ActionAid Intervention programme, “It is very rare to see a woman own a land in this community. I do not know of anybody that has one.
“My late father was one of the few men that believed women could own a land and so I was not surprised when he allocated two plots of land to me before he passed on. Sadly my brothers connived to dispossess me of my land.”
When asked what she would have done with the land, she said: “I wanted to use a plot of the land to farm and hopefully build on the other. My husband’s farm is very small. Owning a farm will help my family have more land to farm and ultimately more income to support the family, especially with my children’s school and personal needs. My brothers’ actions really devastated me and made me sad.”
It was observed that Lasadar community operates a patriarchal system of inheritance, therefore reporting this kind of abuse against women to the village council usually yields no good result.
Based on this ugly situation, ActionAid, with its local partner, Hope for the Lonely, in Gombe are working in Lasadar to stop the practice. With support from the federation of female lawyers Gombe chapter, officers from the Department of State Security and Civil Defence Corps, ActionAid sensitised and trained community and household heads, religious and traditional leaders and members of the community on women’s rights and the legal implications of violating same.
ActionAid has helped Lasadar women gain ownership and control of their lands. So far, about six women in the community have had their cases reviewed by the village council and their lands returned to them.
Having gotten her land back, Liatu said: “The lesson for me is knowing that there are legal implications for my brothers’ actions which could have sent them to jail. By this, I am empowered knowing that I am covered under the law.”
GADA on Gender Equality Bill
A Lagos-based organisation known for championing gender rights, Gender and Development Action (GADA), also used the occasion of 2016 IWD to decry the rejection of the proposed Gender Equality Bill by the Senate. The organisation’s executive director, Mrs. Ada Agina-Ude, while speaking with TheNiche, faulted the rejection of the proposed bill and appealed to the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly (NASS) to reconsider it. She called for the re-presentation and passage of the bill. She also appealed to Houses of Assembly to accept the bill and work towards its passage to meet the UN target on gender equality by 2030.
The Gender Equality Bill, which was sponsored by Senator Biodun Olujimi from Ekiti South, seeking to promote equal opportunities, advancement of all persons, prohibition of violence against women among others, was killed by her colleagues in the Senate. Many male senators mainly from northern part of the country opposed the bill when it was read for the second time. The opponents argued that the bill was both anti-Islamic and unconstitutional. However, Senator Stella Oduah (Anambra North) criticised her colleagues’ action in rejecting the bill, noting that women were first, human beings who have rights, before their ultimate role as mothers, and therefore should be allowed equal opportunities. She appealed for a re-presentation of the bill and urged her colleagues to endorse it when represented.
Solidarity
GADA went out on the IWD to show solidarity to less-privileged women. Their ‘walkout’ was tagged ‘My Sisters Keeper’.
According to Agina-Ude, during the walk, they addressed street hawkers and met with a group of women on equity and fairness in Nigeria. She noted a big gap in women participation in politics at all levels and called on all political parties to give women more chance.
“We appeal to government to put more women in more government places,” she said.
The group also condemned kidnapping, rape and violence against women. The law enforcement agencies were also urged to be on alert and brace up against the ills of the society and ensure that offenders are punished.
Speaking on why most CSOs operate in the cities, Agina-Ude asserted that most of the founders reside in cities, having been there long before floating an NGO. She added that it does not mean that the rural dwellers were left out.
Her words: “The rural dwellers benefit from NGOs that operate from the cities. We reach out to them and organise programmes there. With the introduction of GSM, we easily reach out to them in rural areas.”
There are local NGOs in villages, she said, adding that the only problem they encounter may be reaching out to international donors. According to her, the NGOs in cities reach out to local communities and ensure that they are carried along in their programmes and activities.