Group raises concerns over lack of justice for sexual rights violations
By Ukpono Ukpong
A Non-Governmental Organisation, Legal Defense and Assistance Project (LEPAP), has raised concerns over lack of accountability and the provision of sexual and reproductive rights violations in Nigeria.
According to a report on the “Conflict in Northeast Nigeria’s Impact on the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Women and Girls” unveiled in Abuja, LEPAP said that ensuring accountability and the provision of sexual and reproductive rights information and services is central not only to an effective humanitarian response but also for fulfilling human rights obligations.
The report which is a joint publication of the Centre for Reproductive Rights (the centre) and Legal Defense and Assistance Project (LEPAP), was conceptualised by Senior Council for Africa at the Centre, Onyema Afulukwe and National Coordinator at LEPAP, Chinonye Obianwu.
While noting that yet a pervasive sense of lack of accountability for sexual and reproductive rights violations was evident in interviews with all categories of stakeholders, the report interviewees in the Internally Displaced People camps and host communities recounted the severe sexual violence they were subjected to when their villages and homes were attacked by Boko Haram.
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“Several women and girls, including pregnant women, were raped more often than not in the presence of their children, and many contracted HIV after the experience.”
The report noted that though the victims claimed they were more focused on survival in the IDP camps than on likelihood of ultimately securing justice for what happened to them before they got there. They acknowledged that those who had been subjected to sexual violence in the camps were still unlikely to obtain justice.
Meanwhile, the report also contained that interviewees from government agencies noted that the government was committed to reducing the impact of the conflict on affected populations Abu conceded that there were several shortcomings in the government’s response to the sexual and reproductive rights needs of survivors.
