Women Groups Push For Passage Of Gender, Equality Bill

Women Rights Organisations in Nigeria have regrouped to develop strategies for the passage of Gender and Equal Opportunities (GEO) Bill.

LEADERSHIP Friday reports that several attempts at passing the bill at the National Assembly have failed but the women are determined to ensure certain areas in the proposed bill are unbundled for its passage.

Gathered under the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), the women groups were drawn from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Adamawa and Sokoto states.

The project is supported by UN Women and Spotlight Initiative, according to the senior executive, programmes and projects coordinator, WRAPA, Oluwayemisi Nathaniel. She said they want to jointly chart the way forward on the necessary strategies of engagement to achieve GEO Bill passage.

 “We want a reflection on what should constitute the bill. What are the issues of all stakeholders regarding the GEOB bill? What are the issues why the GEOB was struck out? How can the bill be recoined to make the GEOB more acceptable? c) What reviews should be added to the GEOR. How can we advocate the passage of the GEOP?” Oluwayemisi said.

She said they are developing a technical session with Women Rights Oganisations to develop strategies of engagement and raise rejoinder towards addressing the concerns in the passage of the bill. “The issue of gender-based violence affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. This has peculiar implications for people with marginalized racial, ethnic, class, indigenous, or disabled status.

 “Violence against women and girls is among the most widespread and devastating human rights violations in the world, but much of it is often unreported due to norms and practices that further entrench gender inequality through the culture of impunity, public shaming, and forced silence. Global statistic shows that one in four women will experience a form of violence in her lifetime; yet women’s rights issues remain hugely underfunded (UN Women, 2019),” she added.