State Duties In Sexual And Gender-Based Violence

Eze Onyekpere

In the last three months, there has been an increase in the reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls in Nigeria. The word “reported” is used decidedly considering that for every single report made to the police or in the media, there are tens of unreported cases that no one may ever hear of. These SGBV crimes include murder, rape, battery, defilement of minors, etc. This discourse reviews state obligations to ensure that women and girls are free from any form and manifestation of violence and its implications for public finance management, especially in a situation of a tight fiscal space where available resources need to be dedicated to empirically chosen priorities.

The rights of women, girls and indeed all members of the human family, to freedom from any form of violence imposes peremptory and continuing state obligations under the 1999 Constitution and international standards ratified by and applicable in Nigeria. Some aspects of the proscription of violence against women, especially the SGBV, could be stated to have attained the status of jus cogens, being peremptory norms of customary international law recognised and binding on all civilised nations and from which no derogations are permissible. The constitution guarantees freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment while various laws prohibit and punish rape, assault, battery, defilement, etc. These laws include the Violence against Persons Prohibition Act, Criminal and Penal Codes and the Child Rights Act. There are also laws against trafficking in human beings.

There is a multi-layered duty of state in human rights and in the SGBV/VAWG; they are the obligations to respect protect and fulfil. The obligation to respect demands that federal, state and local governments refrain from directly taking action that promotes violation of freedom from the VAWG/SGBV or obstructing action taken by women in pursuit of their freedom. However, the deliberate withholding of information by the state – information necessary to protect women and girls from violence is a violation of the obligation to respect.

The obligation to protect demands that agents and officials of government take action to prevent violations of freedom from the SGBV by third parties – whether private individuals or organisations and to impose adequate sanctions for violations. This is aptly captured in Article 4 (a) of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women vis; The State should “Exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons”. The exercise of due diligence will include special resource measures to protect the dispensation and advancement of an effective response system in case of violations. It should also include educational measures on radio, television and social media to remind citizens that the VAWG/SGBV is an offence and cannot be tolerated, advertising special hotlines, emails, WhatsApp contacts to help survivors, etc. Dedicated resources may also be provided to agencies such as the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Ministry of Women Affairs at the federal and state levels as well as public and private shelters to ensure that no one is left behind.

The obligation to fulfil requires governments to take appropriate legislative, judicial, administrative, budgetary, economic and other measures, to the maximum of available resources, to ensure freedom from violence to women and girls. The act of appropriation must also be seen to be done in a way and manner devoid of discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds. The provision of state resources must be seen to be concrete and targeted as a step towards the realisation of freedom from violence – not just tokenistic. Even in periods of resource constraints, like our current fiscal crisis, vulnerable members of society must be protected by the adoption of relatively low-cost but targeted measures and programmes which satisfy the minimum core obligation to freedom from violence.

In any state where women and girls are constantly battered, trafficked, deprived of access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, etc., and the state fails to respond, such a state will prima facie be failing to discharge its obligations under national and international standards. Considering the indivisibility of human rights, the minimum core obligation of the state is to ensure that the rights to life, health, human dignity, freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, etc. are not breached through the SGBV and the personhood and dignity of women and girls is held sacrosanct.

Most laws and policies are inchoate until resources are deployed for their implementation. Article 4 (h) of Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women mandates states to include in government budgets, adequate resources for their activities related to the elimination of violence against Women. Again, Article 4 (i) of the African Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa ratified by Nigeria mandates the government to provide adequate budgetary and other resources for the implementation and monitoring of actions aimed at preventing and eradicating violence against women. In providing a resource envelope, the VAWG must be understood as violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. The SGBV/VAWG has serious negative effects on the right to health and the right to life because the easiest way of depriving a woman or girl of her right to life is to accentuate violence to her person to the point of abrogation.

In education and awareness raising, public budgets should fund sensitisation jingles, skits, programmes and related activities on radio, television, print and social media on the illegal and unacceptable nature of domestic violence and other forms of the VAWG/SGBV. In providing remedies for survivors, the budget should fund the establishmentof shelters for survivors of domestic violence where none exists and adequately fund existing shelters.Adequate funding is needed for existing Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) to enable them to provide effective counselling, rehabilitation and support services for survivors of the SGBV. Also, there should be funding for the integration of the services offered by SARCs into existing health service centres across the country; funding for the activation and activation of the Gender Desks of the Police. Furthermore, there should be special funds for legal aid to the Legal Aid Council to help survivors of the VAWG/SGBV to claim their rights and enforce the law; set up an inter-agency task team to ensure proper coordination of interventions on VAWG/SGBV; provide special grant to the NAPTIP to ensure the enforcement of the VAPP Act in the Federal Capital Territory and in other states that have adopted VAPP. Also, data gathering on the trends of the SGBV is a function that should be implemented through funding of the statistics and law enforcement agencies for the specific purpose.

It is therefore a welcome development that the House of Representatives has examined and passed a resolution on the increasing SGBV and part of the resolution includes enactment of relevant laws across the Federation at the subnational level. But the National Assembly needs to back already enacted laws with the resource envelope necessary for their implementation. The amendment of the 2020 federal budget provides the opportunity for the lawmakers to walk the talk.