It is just about a decade the international community started to mobilize against sexual abuse in conflict. It is for this that June 19 was unanimously adopted as the World Day for the elimination of Sexual Violence by the United Nations General Assembly.
The United Nations saw sexual violence, otherwise known as rape in crises period as a plague and so called for its eradication while soliciting support for its victims all over the world. But how much effort is put in this supposed fight against an enigma that has not only reduced the women and children to objects of less value, but has left them with trauma that hunts them for life?
This ugly experience makes them, especially the younger ones, to see life from a negative perspective. It is even regrettable when the fear of stigmatization beclouds the reasoning of the victims and their sympathizers, so much that the evil act is pampered and allowed to thrive since the hurt cannot raise alarm.
But that is just about sexual abuse or violence in conflict, which could, to an extent be excused under the guise of crises period, which is capable of engendering anarchy in all sense of it. I am mostly bothered about same act in a normal situation. How can anyone explain why a child-hawker is cornered into an uncompleted site in the name of buying some articles from her and she is abused within and in most cases appeased by paying off for the little stock in her tray, which serve as a return ticket to that same spot in which she was abused?
What about uncles and male relatives who lose their sense of rationality at the sight of their upcoming, undefiled younger females, only to have them abused sexually and also silenced in their own way?
What about the lecturer who sees himself as a lord and king, that has what it takes to determine and manipulate the destinies of his students, the females not excluded? Who feels that sexual gratification is all the female students need to fulfil to be able to pass to the next level?
Rape and other types of sexual violence are not just an insult on humanity, they are serious human rights violations, that have become a monster, that only the brave can dismantle. I think it is in recognition of this fact that the United Nations Assembly President, Sam Kutesa, said that a global agreement on preventing and addressing such abuses is urgent.
That in its own is the president’s declaration, calling for an urgent global agreement to tackle the enigma. My worry again is the ‘how’ to tackle such a global menace, without derailing from the ‘issue.’ How best can a culture of walking the streets with placards of various inscriptions calling for the condemnation of an unwanted act and probably with participants adorned in attires that explain their supposed actions, help in this fight against a course that has not been fair to humanity?
Is it enough to stay in communication studios and grant interviews on the need to end a societal menace, as well as walk down the rostrums to give talks on same bugging issues without a more proactive measure to end it?
Obviously speaking, the fight against sexual violence or abuse is never a tall dream, with determination, in global agreement, the Amnesty International’s vision of a world in which everybody enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights and other international human rights standard is achievable.
Luckily, the wife of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has urged government at all levels to enforce the law on rape to protect women and children in the country. Mrs Buhari was talking about a law on rape passed on May 25 this year, under the prohibition Act 2015 which prescribes imprisonment ranging from 12 to 20 years for culprits.
The president’s wife is merely staring the obvious, those who understand the rot this heinous act called rape does to the system, would tell you that legislations made to protect the right of the vulnerable must be exploited to the fullest if the act must be checked.
Hence, the need for Nigerian government and international bodies to pursue policies and programmes in line with the provisions of the law that would protect women and children against the act cannot be overemphasized.
One of such policies could include the use of the educational institution as a platform to address this social menace via its inclusion in the curriculum of studies. From the senior primary, the pupils should be exposed to sex education from where the angle of abuse could be highlighted with emphasis on pupils expected reactions to suspected situations.
Taking it from the angle of human rights of citizens in their civil education may not be out of place. What is important is that pupils and students should be let out of the dark in matters of sexual abuse.