IWD 2024: Invest in women, accelerate progress

Every one-in-three woman has been beaten or assaulted in her lifetime, and this does not include online/internet violence, sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women. On average, more than 133 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family in what is otherwise known as ‘honor killing’.

Rach year, 12 million girls under the age of 18 are married off without sufficient education, or skill or consent.  Rape remains a widespread and underreported issue across the world, sex and labor trafficking remain rife, women and girls continue to be   subjected to new and evolving forms of violence, including technology-based violence.

In Nigeria, ACTIONAID reports that 25% of women in Nigeria suffer from GBV/VAWG. This stat is about 30m woman and girls, and the reason why UNWomen recently stated that “no country is within reach of eradicating intimate partner violence,” and that we are “failing women and girls.”

There is hope, because we can change the narrative. Every Woman Treaty is a global coalition of more than 3000 women’s rights advocates and 840 organizations in 147 countries working to eliminate violence against women and girls.  We are part of an effort to create a legally binding instrument at the global level to eradicate violence against women and girls by creating and developing a new optional protocol on violence against women and girls, in conjunction to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

CEDAW is the world’s leading treaty on women’s rights, one of the most widely ratified UN conventions in the world (189 nations), its near-global subscription can help facilitate the ratification of a new protocol. Additionally, the baseline text already exists in CEDAW General Recommendation 35 on violence against women and girls.

A new optional protocol would set a minimum standard for State obligations to strengthen protections on violence against women and girls domestically and facilitate oversight and accountability globally. Based on General Recommendation 35, the protocol would include interventions proven to lower rates of violence, including:

1. Legal reform – Adopt laws prohibiting all forms of violence against women and girls.
2. Training and accountability – For law enforcement, judges and health professionals on the problem and protocols for action.
3. Prevention Education – Early education in schools for boys and girls as well as education for women and men, mothers and fathers.
4. Survivor services – Shelters, comprehensive medical treatment, and financial support for survivors seeking refuge and justice from violence.
5. Funding – Provide adequate resources to implement these interventions.

I know you may be thinking, I am not a woman, why should I be concerned? Or I have never or will never be abused by anyone?  Well, you should be concerned because violence against women and girls is currently the most widespread persistent, and devastating human rights violations in the world. And research has shown that children grow up in a violent environment are very likely to grow into. violent adults.

We, the women of the world under the flagship of Every Woman Treaty, we are really not asking for too much, just a world free of violence. Support the treaty,

1. Enforce legal reform
2. Training law enforcement, judges and health professionals and hold them accountable.
3. Implement violence Prevention Education
4. Provide safety nets and services for Survivor
5. Finally, provide the Funding for implantation of these strategies.

To learn more about how you can get involved and contribute to the fight against VAWGs/GBV, Every Woman Treaty and the optional protocol, visit https://everywoman.org/home/

Thank you.

Hawwah A Gambo is a multimedia journalist, social entrepreneur, gender advocate and politician.