Studies have shown that one in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. It’s therefore a serious societal issue and violation of human rights and a life-threatening health and protection issue.
The menace is widespread not only in developing countries, but also developed ones. It is widely agreed that weak legislations and policies in some countries make it difficult for authorities to prosecute offenders.
Therefore, it is high time the government put in place stringent measures and laws to address the menace. Until then, this ugly menace on gender directed at women and girl-child would continue to thrive in years to come.
The Gambia Inclusive and Resilient Agricultural Value Chains Development Project (GIRAV) under the Central Projects Coordinating Unit (CPCU) of the Ministry of Agriculture recently convened a day’s stakeholder sensitisation on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Violence Against Children (VAC) at Baobab Resort, Bijilo.
Studies revealed that at the global level as many as 38% of the murders of women are committed by intimate partners, and going through these numbers one would reason that they are already diverse at some significant social and economic costs.
What is even more interesting is that most of this gender-based violence is committed right under the nose and people know about it. It’s incumbent on all to report and act against any violence against women.
GBV is preventable and let's all commit our efforts to promoting gender equality and human rights and to protecting women.
Certainly, the government is doing all it takes to empower and uphold the dignity of women and girl-child in communities. However, more efforts are still needed to uproot the growing menace in society.
Also, people should remember that the menace is fuelled due to structural inequalities, such as societal norms, attitudes and stereotypes around gender. But this should not be an excuse to continue a brutal act against women.
We all have a stake to develop methodologies for assessing the risk of sexual exploitation and abuses, as well as guidelines to curb the menace.
Men need to create conducive environment for families and even communities. Also, proper implementation and enforcement of the law is very important. We need to ensure that a woman has access to the necessary legal and medical assistance after being tortured. Let everyone be gender sensitive from their respective positions to eradicate gender violence irrespective of race-religion-gender-caste.