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Tag: rape victims

  • Rape victims deserve justice, says envoy

    Rape victims deserve justice, says envoy

    The Pakistani High Commissioner in Nigeria, Umar Farooq has urged appropriate authority to ensure rape victims get justice.

    Farooq spoke at a three-day workshop on importance of raising young female leaders.

    The programme was organised by Juliet Ume-Onyido, a Toronto-based poet and leadership coach in collaboration with Tara Uzra Dawood, President Dawood Global Foundation.

    The High Commissioner said instilling leadership qualities in young girls will aid societal development.

    “This will make a difference in the life of the people and a better living for the nation,” he said.

    The envoy decried violence on girls, saying “the girls deserve justice and freedom; that is their birthright. A well-nurtured girl child makes the society better.”

    Ume-Onyido urged rape victims to speak out, warning the society against stigmatisation.

    “Recently, we have heard no fewer than 500 cases of rape. We need people that are affected to open up and let their voices be heard. We want them to come together and share their stories.  I want a girl from Borno State to   share her story with a girl from Enugu State. In fact, they should be able to communicate across the world.  They should know that they are girls who will end up being mothers, create and nurtures the community that we want. That is the foundation we are laying here,” she said.

  • ‘Why rape victims don’t get justice’

    Why is it difficult to get justice for rape victims? It is because of the absence of reliable and verifiable and lack of support services, says Mrs Itoro-Anaba, Founder of Mirabel Centre, a non-governmental organisation that deals with rape cases.

    She said: “The reported cases of sexual violence, especially child sexual abuse have become a topic for national discourse. The malaise is generally acknowledged by government officials and human rights advocates to be endemic. Perpetrators of sexual violence act with impunity due to corruption and incompetency in investigation and prosecution of such cases.

    “One of the biggest challenges in seeking justice for the survivor is the absence of reliable and verifiable data and lack of support services. This disturbing situation has led to many survivors not seeking help nor reporting to the police.

    “In a bid to fill this gap and provide a safe and comfortable place for survivors of rape and sexual assault to receive needed professional care, Partnership for Justice (PJ), with funding from Justice for All Programme of the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Council, established the first sexual assault referral centre in Nigeria. Known as the Mirabel Centre, it opened its doors to the public in July 2013.”

    She added that a conference is scheduled to hold on July 22 that will focus on the roles of men providing support to survivors of rape and sexual assault.

    She explained that in two years the centre has provided free services to 737 clients, the youngest being 10 months old and the oldest 70 years. “This number is made up of 17 male clients and 720 female clients. Many of these clients are referred to the centre by the police (Family Support Unit (FSU) and non FSU), the hospital, civil society organisationCSOs, government agencies and some just walk into the centre for treatment,” she added.

  • ‘What I learnt from rape victims’

    ‘What I learnt from rape victims’

    Itoro Eze Anaba is the initiator of the Mirabel Centre for Rape Victims. In this Interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about how the idea of the Mirabel Centre started, initial challenges, clients testing positive to HIV, as well as her nomination for the Vlisco 2015 award.

    HOW did the idea of Mirabel Centre start? I had drafted the domestic violence bill and I started the advocacy campaign. In the process, I started talking to people and I came across a 14-year-old girl, who told me a story that really touched me. She said that from the age of 11 years, her father had been abusing her but she did not know where to go to.

    She told her pastor and her pastor told her that it didn’t happen and he tried to shut her up. So, when I met her, I was shocked that that kind of thing was happening. I decided to look around and make enquiries and I discovered that there were so many other young girls that were being abused in their homes. At about this time, I went to Manchester and I visited a centre and I just knew that this was the kind of thing I needed to do in Nigeria. It took me ten years, though, to set it up. That was from 2003 to 2013.The centre is modelled after the centre that I visited and it will be two years this July.

    What was the major challenge?

    We had to get an MOU between us and the hospital, and that was a serious one. That meant that the hospital had to get approval from the government. That took a while and we almost lost the grant before we got the approval. Then getting the doctors to attend the training as well as getting the trust of the system for the survivors. We actually thought it was going to be a problem working with the police, but the police have not been a problem, in terms of bringing the clients. Those were the challenges when we started, and then having to play the internal politics of the hospital itself.

    Two years down the line, what are some of your achievements?

    One is that we have been able to provide services for over 700 people, the youngest being 18 months old and the oldest 17 years old. The other achievement is that we have credible and reliable data. We have also been able to work with government agencies , pull them together and be able to tell them this is what we have done and what should be done and they are able to see this in perspective. Also, setting up the domestic violence bill for the Lagos State government was part of our achievements. We were part of the pressure group and it was a very good opportunity for us. Those are the achievements and the fact that people are beginning to come out and break the culture of silence. Also, you find that a lot of young people are coming up not because they have a choice but their parents are informed. However, you find that the adults are not coming out; the cases you find are people that were molested when they were younger. Now, they just can’t get over it and they need some counselling and all that.

    Talking about rape, you have some young girls from Chibok raped by Boko Haram men and they are pregnant. Some people think they should opt for abortion, what do you think?

    It is a very personal matter. Nobody has a right to tell them to have an abortion or not to have an abortion. If she doesn’t want to have an abortion and you are considering an abortion, you are adding to her trauma. Having an abortion also has its consequences. It is not as if once you have taken it out, you are done.

    The question is, are they ready to deal with that trauma for the rest of their lives? So, that is my opinion; it is their personal decision. If they are comfortable with their pregnancy, please leave them alone. There is also the issue of rape by people like armed robbers and kidnappers.

    Do you have a counselling unit to address this?

    Oh yes! That’s what we do. We provide counselling up to six times at the Mirabel Centre. We also provide free medical treatment, including tests like HIV. Where we cannot do the test at the centre, we send it to a separate laboratory. So we do it all with a holistic approach.

    So what does life after rape look like?

    For a lot of the minors, where there is hostility from the host community because they have reported, we ask the Lagos State government to relocate them. So we take them out of the environment and try to get them back to life. We also have the quarterly Survivor’s Forum, where we come together to find out how they are doing, and how they have moved on. We are looking forward to when we can provide skill acquisition, especially for the caregivers of the minors. For a lot of them, economic empowerment is a problem. Where a child is sexually molested, it is possible that the offender counts N100, 000 and the temptation is real. So those are some of the things that we are looking at.

    It is a sensitive area. Have there been threats?

    Oh yes! There are threats but we haven’t had a direct threat. Once there was information that I was out of the country, the client came to the centre and the perpetrator threatened her saying, ‘after all, Itoro is not in the country.’ I don’t know how he got the information and so we have been more careful. Apart from that, there has not been any direct threat.

    How would you assess government’s policy and its implementation in Lagos State and other parts of the country?

    Lagos State has really impacted lives; they are taking the lead in everything. From setting up the response team, the register and all that is required. Those are all part of the holistic approach to sexual violence and they have done a lot. The federal government should actually do the same to make life better.

    What is the percentage of males to the females that are raped?

    Out of the 700, we have had 16 boys that have reported. It is a lot more difficult for them to speak out than the girls.

    How come men have more tendencies to do this?

    We have had women as perpetrators, but raping is more about power and our society is patriarchal. All the powers are in the men’s area. Men think it is the normal thing; that even when the woman says no, she means yes. It is all about socialisation and the role that we give our boy-child. We give the girls all the don’ts while the boys get away with almost everything. While we do not bother to check the boys, they grow up thinking that they are entitled to some things and when it is not forthcoming, they think that they can take it by force.

    About 10 of our clients have tested HIV positive and they didn’t know they were HIV positive. So, whoever those men sleep with will also go with the virus.

    Let’s tie this to working with LEDAP (Legal Defence and Assistance Project)

    I joined LEDAP in year 2000, and then the national coordinator asked me to develop a woman’s programme. It was non-existent and I developed it. One of the things I had going for me then was that he gave me a free hand to do whatever I needed to do. That was how the domestic violence bill came about. It was at that point, that the idea of the Mirabel Centre came about. So, the Mirabel Centre can be traced to the opportunities I had at LEDAP. They are still very supportive of what I do now.

    How did you get the Vlisco nomination?

    I was in my office and I got a phone call that I had been nominated for the Vlisco award. I was in the middle of submitting a proposal and when I finished, I continued with what I was doing. Initially, I thought it was a scam and did not take it serious. The following day, I sent the email and they sent me a mail. I went to their website and that was how it started. Then they came to my office, did interviews and a lot of photo shoots and video recording. The publicity was huge and it really impacted on the Mirabel Centre.

    If you were to advise women, what would you tell them?

    On a specific area of child abuse, I would say open your eyes. Don’t take anything for granted. It sounds paranoid but please don’t assume anything, be there for the child. When the child asks questions, please respond. If you do not respond, they would go and find out elsewhere. Also make sure that your line of communication is open, don’t trust anybody.

  • Rape victims storm National Assembly

    Rape victims storm National Assembly

    Rape victims yesterday converged on the National Assembly complex Abuja to seek accelerated passage of the Sexual Offences Bill.

    The Bill has been pending at the two chambers of the National Assembly for over two years.

    Lawmakers, particularly the women, fought back tears yesterday as they listened to the pathetic stories of the rape victims.

    The affected ladies shared their experiences in the hands of their violators.

    They were at the legislative complex to inform senators and House of Representatives members on the need to pass the Bill to prevent further sexual offences.

    The rape victims took part in a mock tribunal/court proceeding on sexual and gender based violence, anchored by the National Assembly Women Affairs Committee and the Legislative Advocacy Coalition for Violence in Nigeria.

    The ladies painfully recalled how they were sexually assaulted by men, who were old enough to be their fathers.

    They also recalled how their efforts to seek redress in courts were frustrated because of weak laws against such crime or a lack of such laws.

    The violated women, who covered their faces when they gave details of how they were sexually assaulted, urged the women lawmakers to save other ladies – either of their ages or much younger than them – from sexual assault.

    Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) and Senator Chris Anyanwu (Imo East), who received the distraught women, described rape as the most wicked crime against the womenfolk.

    The senators vowed to use the legislative machinery available to them to ensure that relevant bills, which seek to protect women and children against violence, are passed before the end of the current legislative year.

    The Founding Director of Women Aid Collective Dr. Joy Ezeilo said the purpose of the mock tribunal/court was to spotlight cases of gender-based violence in Nigeria.

    Ezeilo said the organisers also wanted to use the event to raise the voices of the victims and survivors to take urgent action on the appropriate laws that would protect women and vulnerable groups.

  • Justice for India’s rape victims

    Justice for India’s rape victims

    Influenced by extraordinary street protests, Indian authorities have moved swiftly to try the men accused of gang-raping a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi. Clearly, justice must be served, but there are disturbing aspects to the way the case is being handled.

    The victim died last month, two weeks after the brutal attack in which she was beaten, assaulted with an iron rod on a moving bus and then thrown bleeding onto the street. She had taken the bus after seeing a movie with a male friend, who was also beaten. Thousands of Indians have demonstrated and called for justice.

    The case has brought to light India’s growing problem with violence against women. It has underscored serious weaknesses in the judicial system, which encourages women not to bring charges against rapists and rarely brings to justice those who are accused. Incompetent police are also part of the problem. The victim’s male companion said later that police were slow to respond and then wasted more time wrangling over who had jurisdiction over the crime.

    Stunned by the popular response, authorities set up a fast-track process to hear the case. But while efforts to try the case expeditiously are to be commended, some legal experts are understandably concerned that a rush to judgment could mean that any verdicts will be overturned on appeal. The government should not be so eager to appease popular rage that it takes imprudent shortcuts.

    Also disturbing is the fact that most lawyers have refused to represent the defendants. Their outrage at the reprehensible attack is understandable, but for the sake of all Indians, and for the country’s judicial system, there needs to be a fair trial, which requires that the accused have counsel so they can prepare a defense. Two lawyers have agreed to represent three of the five accused men. A sixth defendant, a teenager, is to be tried separately in juvenile court.

    The judge overseeing the trial has contributed to the sense of unease about the fairness of the proceedings. On Monday, he closed the trial to reporters and invoked a law that makes it “unlawful for any person to print or publish any matter in relation to any such proceedings, except with the previous permission of the court.”

    Transparency is needed to give Indians confidence that the judiciary is serving the common good and delivering credible justice. India allowed journalists to cover the trial of those accused of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and should do so in this case as well.

    The New Delhi attack has focused much-needed attention on India’s sexual assault laws, which are now being reviewed by a special panel of judges. Its report, expected in January, and New Delhi’s reaction to it (some proposed new laws have already been introduced in Parliament) will reveal a lot about whether the government is serious about doing more to protect women. This case is too important to allow it to be tarnished by cutting legal corners.

    New York Times