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Title: Effectiveness of Legislation Enacted to Address VAW in Nigeria


1
Effectiveness of Legislation Enacted to Address
VAW in Nigeria
  • By
  • Oby Nwankwo
  • Executive Director
  • Civil Resource Development and Documentation
    Centre (CIRDDOC) Nigeria
  • Monday, December 02, 2013

2
Introduction Violence against women
  • a profound social health problem for women.
  • a significant cause of female morbidity
    mortality.
  • a social problem in terms of the cultural
    prerogatives assigned to men by sexism.
  • a patriarchal culture both fosters belief in
    mens entitlement to service, obedience, loyalty
    subservience of women partners authorizes
    mens violence towards women in service of those
    entitlements.
  • In a patriarchy, the power assigned to men in
    intimate relationships the violence permitted
    to sustain that power foster social control of
    women by men in the culture.

3
VAW Cultural Myths (1)
  • Violence should be seen as the final expression
    of patriarchal values of sexual domination in
    society.
  • The values are accentuated by cultural myths
    which suggest for instance, that
  • domestic violence is a private family affair,
  • women who are raped asked for it
  • Cultural myths victimize women shape their
    attitudes towards violence.
  • Presumption that marriage entails automatic
    consent to sexual relations, terms of which are
    dictated by the husband.
  • Mens ownership of womens sexuality justifies
    FGM child marriage to preserve a womans
    virginity for her husband.
  • Laws (s. 55 P.C) tend to encourage VAW - allows a
    husband to beat his wife, justifying the
    ownership myth.

4
VAW Cultural Myths (2)
  • Longstanding social cultural norms reinforce
    its acceptability in society.
  • Marital rape is not a crime a wife is the
    property of the man who paid bride price.
  • Divorce property laws customary practices
    disadvantage women who try to escape abusive
    marriages.
  • Nigerian women are
  • excluded from inheriting (cannot access credit
    for lack of collateral),
  • evicted from their lands homes by in-laws,
  • stripped of their possessions,
  • forced to engage in risky sexual practices in
    order to keep their property.

5
Forms of Manifestation of VAW in Nigeria (1)
  • Pushing, kicking, hitting, punching, burning,
    stabbing, throwing of hot water or sulfuric acid,
    wounding, killing.
  • HTPs - FGM, child marriage, oppressive widowhood
    practices, levirate marriages denial of
    inheritance.
  • Sexual offences - rape, marital rape, incest,
    indecent assault, sexual harassment, forced
    pregnancy, trafficking in women, deliberately
    infecting women with HIV/AIDS.
  • Violence by state actors - rape indecent
    assault by police d security forces, torture of
    women in custody.
  • Emotional or psychological abuse - a form of
    violence that many battered women consider worse
    than physical abuse.

6
Forms of Manifestation of VAW in Nigeria (2)
  • Emotional or psychological abuse involve
  • repeated verbal abuse, Harassment,
  • Confinement husbands restricting their wives
    movements.
  • deprivation of financial personal resources,
  • repeated threats to send victim away from her
    matrimonial home,
  • men going away from home leaving the children
    mother without any support,
  • in-laws tormenting the wife
  • sex selective abortion/male child preference
    ideology,
  • daughters women being thought of as good for
    nothing not worth educating,
  • perpetual fear of being beaten, attacked or
    harassed.

7
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Criminal Law (1)
  • Before 2003, no national laws expressly or
    specifically protecting women against violence.
  • Existing laws are inadequate, discriminatory or
    limited by virtue of the undue burden placed on
    the victim Criminal Law.
  • Section 383 of the Criminal Code of Nigeria - 3
    years imprisonment for assault occasioning harm
  • - does not protect women from violence in
    relationships e.g. marriage
  • - deals with assault generally
  • - It does not provide reliefs - maintenance,
    shelter, custody etc.
  • Remedies under criminal law are confined to the
    prosecution possible conviction of the offender
    nothing for the victim.

8
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Criminal Law
(2)
  • Criminal Law provides punishment for violent acts
    but the system refuses to deal with violence in
    the home as crime.
  • State driven - little space to consider the
    victims needs.
  • Non-compoundable offence - does not allow a woman
    any scope for entering into settlements once the
    case reaches the court.
  • Higher standard of proof - beyond reasonable
    doubt.
  • High burden is difficult to discharge.
  • Police refusal to file complaints by victims
    under the CC.
  • General perception that such cases are private
    should never be put in the public realm.

9
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Criminal Law (3)
  • Punishment for rape in the CC is life
    imprisonment.
  • However, the law requires corroboration, which
    makes proof of the offence an arduous task
    provides for the court to remind itself of the
    danger of convicting on the uncorroborated
    evidence of victim.
  • Section 221 CC
  • penalty of 2 years imprisonment for unlawful
    carnal knowledge of a girl being above 13 years
    and under 16 years of age
  • it is a defense under the section that the
    accused person believed that the girl was above
    16 years.
  • prosecution must have begun within 2 months after
    the offence was committed or it lapses
  • there must be corroboration to secure a
    conviction usually no witness in such offences.
  • While indecent assault on a girl is a
    misdemeanour, indecent assault of a boy is a
    felony that carries a stiffer penalty.
  • Sentences are inadequate

10
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Sharia Legal
Code
  • Rape is criminalized in the Sharia Penal Laws
    introduced from 1999 - 12 northern states.
  • Insufficient protection or redress for women who
    have been raped discriminates against married
    women.
  • Definition of rape falls short of the principles
    underlying the Rome statute definition.
  • Sexual intercourse by a man with his wife is not
    rape.
  • Under the Kano Sharia Penal Code rape carries
    different penalties according to marital status
    of the perpetrator.
  • Punishable with death by stoning if the
    perpetrator is married, caning up to life
    imprisonment if the perpetrator is unmarried.
  • A woman alleging rape must produce 4 witnesses or
    go to imprisonment for one year or up to 100
    lashes.

11
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Marriage
Divorce Laws (1)
  • Some provisions of Nigerian laws reduce ability
    of women to escape violent relationships.
  • Ground for the dissolution of marriage under the
    Matrimonial Causes Act is irretrievable breakdown
    of the marriage.
  • Lists a series of conduct for which the
    petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live
    with the respondent - one of which is cruelty.
  • Petitioner has to satisfy the court that the
    respondent has been convicted of attempted murder
    or attempt to unlawfully kill her etc.
  • This conviction is necessary for the woman to get
    out of the relationship lawfully.
  • Courts do not consider a single act of cruelty
    sufficient to evoke the application of that
    section of the law.

12
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Marriage
Divorce Laws (2)
  • Right to reside in the matrimonial home is
    missing in all our laws.
  • The matrimonial home belongs to the husband under
    the culture.
  • Without the recognition of a right to reside,
    divorce laws provide little support to women in
    violent situations.
  • Root cause of the vulnerability of a woman in her
    matrimonial home.
  • A major factor making it possible to drive out a
    woman blackmail her into agreeing to an unfair
    settlement.
  • Breakdown of marriage in our society with its
    attendant discrimination means virtual civil
    death for women.
  • Divorce law has no answer for women who do not
    want a divorce but want to end the violence.

13
Existing Legal Framework on VAW Trafficking
Laws.
  • In 2003, the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition)
    Law Enforcement Administration Act was passed.
  • Government followed up with an implementation
    agency - National Agency for Prohibition of
    Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).
  • Since 2003, the war against human trafficking has
    been diligent under NAPTIP.
  • Act was amended in 2005 to increase penalties.
  • procurement of persons for illicit sexual
    intercourse with another (10 years imprisonment),
  • procurement for prostitution (14 years), etc.
  • NAPTIP to enforce the law, coordinate other
    laws against trafficking adopt measures to
    eradicate trafficking.

14
Existing Legal Framework on VAW State Laws (1)
  • No national law against HTPs before 1999.
  • Subsequent state laws prohibiting HTPs include
  • Edo State Female Circumcision Genital
    Mutilation (Prohibition) Law (1999),
  • Cross River State Girl-Child Marriages Female
    Circumcision (Prohibition) Law (2000),
  • Rivers State Abolition of Female Circumcision Law
    (2001),
  • Ogun State Female Circumcision Genital
    Mutilation (Prohibition) Law (2000),
  • Ebonyi State Abolition of HTPs Against Women
    Children Law (2001).
  • These laws have criminalized FGM prescribed
    penalties for offenders, though extremely
    inadequate.

15
Existing Legal Framework on VAW State Laws (2)
  • State laws on the fundamental rights of widows
    widowers
  • Enugu State Prohibition of Infringement of
    Widows and Widowers Fundamental Rights Law
    (2001)
  • Oyo State Widows Empowerment Law, 2002
  • Anambra State Malpractices against Widows
    Widowers (Prohibition) Law in 2004
  • Edo State Inhuman Treatment of Widows
    (Prohibition) Law 2004
  • Ekiti State Widowhood Law.

16
Administration of Justice Sector Reforms (1)
  • Government set up a committee on reform of
    justice sector.
  • Worked with the LRC to review laws Has
    submitted report but yet to be passed.
  • Women submitted memoranda, recommending victim
    witness protection provisions in DV cases.
  • A Government draft bill on DV was harmonized with
    VAW bill.
  • Committee on Review of Discriminatory Laws
    against Women, 2005 NHR Commission.
  • Abolition of all Forms of Discrimination against
    Women in Nigeria Other Related Matters Act
    2006 - pending before NASS.

17
Administration of Justice Sector Reforms
Domestication of International Conventions (2)
  • Childs Rights Act, 2003 - first national law to
    put the age of marriage at 18 years.
  • Act incorporates basic principles of UN
    Convention on Rights of the Child.
  • Act criminalizes HTPs against the girl child.
  • Act establishes a child justice system different
    from the regular court procedure.
  • Nigeria has incorporated the African Charter on
    Human Peoples Rights.
  • Provides for right to dignity prohibits all
    forms of exploitation degradation.

18
Background of VAW Bill (1)The Womens Tribunal
  • VAW had long been trivialised in Nigeria, people
    refused to recognise the extent of domestic
    violence abuse.
  • No gender disaggregated verifiable data on VAW
  • No government effort to address it.
  • In 2001, CIRDDOC BAOBAB organised a mock
    tribunal on VAW - to break the silence around
    VAW.
  • 33 women girls told a panel of respected judges
    their stories of abuse including rape, incest,
    wife battery, murder, attempted murder,
    trafficking etc.
  • National media coverage Large audience.
  • Testimony of the women brought many to tears.
  • Judges returned a verdict - powerful
    recommendations including legislation.

19
Background of VAW Bill (2)The Womens Tribunal
  • Tribunal was timed to correspond with democratic
    elections so newly elected legislators would gain
    greater perspective on the issue be confronted
    with the need to include it in their schedule of
    legislation.
  • Promoted greater public appreciation of VAW.
  • It had a striking impact, the womens testimony
    moved witnesses to look at the issue of VAW
    demand action.
  • It added faces, stories experiences to the
    statistics of VAW to give greater weight to the
    issue.
  • Participants Government law enforcement
    agencies, ministries, LG officials, UN agencies,
    cultural religious leaders, schools, donors,
    NGOs individuals.

20
Background of VAW Bill (3)The Womens Tribunal
  • Legislators pledged their support for a VAW Bill.
  • It raised awareness about VAW, actively
    engaged journalists who continued to highlight
    the issue more regularly in their reporting.
  • It created a reference point for the discussion
    of womens human rights VAW.
  • National state level legislation to protect
    women were developed as a result of the tribunals
    other interventions.
  • Cross River state tribunal took place earlier in
    1999 2 years later the Northern CRS Women
    Assoc. successfully lobbied for a law against FGM.

21
Background of the Violence Prohibition Bill
  • As a result of these interventions
    disillusionment arising from inadequacies of
    existing laws their failure to protect women
  • Womens rights activists came together to form an
    umbrella organization National Coalition on VAW
  • To join forces to move the socio-cultural
    phenomenon from a private space into the public
    sphere.
  • Serious work on combating the menace.
  • Consensus was that legislation was necessary.
  • Legislative Advocacy Coalition on VAW was
    therefore established.
  • Members presented the VAW bill before the NASS.
  • Legislative advocacy commenced but the former
    NASS failed to pass the bill before its life came
    to an end.

22
Rationale Key Features of the Violence
Prohibition Bill (1)
  • Title Violence Prohibition Bill.
  • Prohibits all forms of Violence
  • Physical,
  • Sexual,
  • Psychological,
  • Domestic Violence,
  • HTPs
  • Discrimination against Women
  • Provides remedies for Victims
  • Establishes a Commission a Trust Fund for
    victims.
  • Purpose to prevent violence, punish offenders
    restore a woman to a position of equality within
    the marriage.
  • Precondition - to stop the violence promptly.

23
Rationale Key Features of the Violence
Prohibition Bill (2)
  • A successful law on DV will include some basic
    provisions -
  • a clear declaration of the basic intent of the
    law, namely,
  • the object of preventing domestic violence
  • a clear unambiguous statement of the right to
    be free from DV
  • recognition of DV as a violation of the human
    rights of women
  • Definition of DV which captures womens
    experience of abuse with some degree of
    precision
  • Definition of the shared household so that
    rights can be protected within that household
  • Relief that can be given to protect women from
    violence
  • Infrastructure available to victims of violence
    that can make the remedy accessible e.g. clarity
    simplicity of court procedures
  • Monitoring the functioning of the law
  • Coordinated response to DV by recognizing the
    role of NGOs, medical profession, shelters
    police in assisting prevention of DV.

24
Rationale Key Features of the Violence
Prohibition Bill (3)
  • Original name VAW Bill, later changed to
    Violence (Prohibition) Bill, 2003.
  • Men also suffer DV should be protected also.
  • 25 volunteer sponsors - 10 female 15 male.
  • Massive production wide distribution.
  • Criminal Civil components to fill in the
    inadequacies in the existing legal regime.
  • Recognition of a womans right to a life free
    from violence.
  • An effort to codify common law - recognises a
    womans right to reside in her matrimonial home.

25
Key Features of the Bill
  • It repeals inadequate laws
  • It incorporates Gang Rape
  • It establishes a Trust Fund for victims of VAW
  • It defines domestic violence, domestic
    relationship, violence, a child.
  • It provides the following remedies
  • a. Criminal sanctions
  • b. Compensation
  • c. Emergency Monetary relief
  • d. Protection Order/Interim Protection Order
  • d. Custody order
  • e. Interim orders

26
Infrastructure under the law
  • Special desks in police stations
  • Special training for officers who handle sexual
    offences.
  • Rape Crisis Centres
  • Victims Trust Fund
  • VAW Commission to
  • monitor implementation of the Act when passed,
  • administering the operation of the Trust Fund
  • manage the Rape Crisis Centre etc.
  • Courts empowered to deal with applications
  • Medical facilities shelter homes to provide
    services to aggrieved women.

27
Commonalities differences in legal approaches
in Nigeria (1)
  • Legal Defense Assistance Project (LEDAP) DV
    bill project at state level - At least 2 states
    passed the law.
  • LEDAP DV bill is quasi criminal quasi civil in
    nature.
  • Perpetrators who disobey court order or
    prohibition in the law is to be arrested
    punished.
  • Criminal proceedings require long procedures
    depend on efforts of the investigating
    prosecuting police officer
  • Women encounter obstacles in the course of the
    process.
  • Policemen refuse to file their complaints
  • Relevant technical documents - medical report
    etc. are difficult to get.
  • Women are afraid to file criminal complaints
    because
  • they fear that the incarceration of their
    husbands would result in a loss of face or social
    status for the family
  • their husbands would become more violent after
    incarceration or
  • they would be left without a source of income if
    the husband is sent to jail.
  • they do not wish to place their children in a
    situation where they will have to see their
    father in jail.

28
Commonalities differences in legal approaches
in Nigeria (2)
  • LEDAP DV bill aims only at protecting the
    survivor from violence within the home.
  • Protection order will provide women with other
    means of ending the violence to which they are
    subjected.
  • The civil justice process will involve less
    complicated quicker legal proceedings.
  • The order compels the spouse to continue to
    provide for his family during the time he is
    under legal sanction counseling.
  • Different state HTP laws adopted different
    approaches.
  • Most of them are quasi-criminal in nature.
  • Each state law dealt with an aspect of violence
    or two.

29
Effectiveness of Laws on VAW (1)
  • Violence Prohibition Bill is yet to be passed.
  • Criminal laws involve protracted legal
    proceedings do not allow for negotiations.
  • Difficulty in accessing existing laws led to
    conception of a VAW law.
  • State VAW laws are not implemented.
  • Lack of political will.
  • No record of the budgetary provision.
  • Anti-trafficking programs are underfinanced
    inadequately supported.
  • FGNs commitment to the war against trafficking
    in human persons through NAPTIP is yielding
    results.

30
Effectiveness of Laws on VAW (2) Activities of
NAPTIP
  • Bursting of trafficking syndicates.
  • Repatriation rehabilitation of victims of
    trafficking.
  • Punishment of culprits.
  • In 2006, government reported 81 trafficking
    investigations, 23 prosecutions 3 convictions.
  • Sentences imposed on traffickers were inadequate.
  • NAPTIP shelters in 6 cities provide victims with
    short term care.
  • In 2006, the government developed a national
    action plan against trafficking.
  • By 2007, Nigeria moved from tier 2 watch list to
    tier 2, which, according to the ES of NAPTIP, is
    a great achievement for the country.

31
Challenges
  • Patriarchal mindset of the general public,
    legislators, government structures civil
    society.
  • Political environment took legislative attention
    away from duties.
  • Impeachment fever that gripped the Assemblies
    3rd term bid of Mr. president distracted them.
  • Lack of evidence based data on VAW contributed in
    the non-passage of the law.
  • Lack of awareness of existence of the laws.
  • Lack of political will to allocate adequate
    resources to support implementation of laws.
  • Institutions Homes necessary for the
    implementation of the laws are not covered in the
    budgets.
  • Lack of resources on the part of victims.

32
Lessons learnt
  • Coalition building capacity building for NGOs
    are necessary for successful legislative
    advocacy.
  • Failure to sensitise the community, women the
    gate keepers about the bill led to a backlash.
  • Massive dissemination of the contents of the law
    imperative for successful implementation.
  • Legislation gives legitimacy to the campaign to
    end VAW provides incentive for the involvement
    of government local authorities.
  • Legislation is an obligation to initiate or
    support the efforts to combat violence.
  • VAW must be recognised as a social problem at the
    local level, to make it easier to secure support
    for the proposed legislation.
  • Political environment can have a strong influence
    on the way society perceives the project.
  • Distraction of legislators by political
    environment contributed to the failure to pass
    the bill.
  • The executive needs to be targeted in the
    advocacy plan as implementation of a law is its
    responsibility.

33
Good practices (1)
  • Building coalition building and partnership among
    the stakeholders.
  • Involving different institutions in the drafting
    of the bill brought in different perspectives to
    the bill.
  • Management transparency coordination of the
    project by a Steering Committee of stakeholders
    ensured a level of trust to the project by
    different persons.
  • Establishment of partnerships between CSOs
    government contributed to the little success
    achieved in the project
  • Using media as an ally partly because of the
    sensational nature of the topic, mass media
    campaign helped to raise awareness of the problem
    sensitized the government legislators.

34
Good Practices (2)
  • Ensuring that the contents of the bill respected
    the culture of the place right of residence.
  • Enlisting support of high profile legislators and
    government officials was a good practice.
  • Framing sensitive issues in a culturally
    appropriate context is important.
  • Simplifying and translating existing laws into
    local languages as well as including a simple
    guide on how to use the laws (particularly at the
    state and local levels) will improve the level of
    implementation and effectiveness of the laws.
  • Building strengthening the capacity of the
    Legal Aid Council to make the implementation of
    the laws on VAW a core focus of their services.

35
Conclusion
  • The different approaches have yielded credible
    results from which a number of lessons can be
    drawn.
  • Although the Violence Prohibition bill was not
    passed into law before the end of the life of the
    former legislature, a lot of lessons were learnt
    and these would guide the next phase of advocacy
    on the bill when it resumes.
  • Capacity building is needed for CSOs to ensure
    that they become an important social force
    capable of influencing the male dominated and
    patriarchal legislature to pass the bill into
    law.
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