Yenagoa – The National President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA),Mrs Hauwa Shekarau, on Friday urged Nigerian Editors to create awareness on the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act.
Shekarau made the appeal in a paper on the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act which she presented at the ongoing 11th Nigerian Guild of Editors Conference in Yenagoa.
She said it had become necessary to publicise the act because of the daily incidents of violence against women in the country.
“ Aside from the domestic violence and other types of violence that we are seeing, what is very fearful is the sexual violence that is happening in our society.
“ Sexual violence against children, including infants, and sexual violence against old women give us a lot of great concern,“ she said.
She, however, acknowledged the efforts of some journalist for availing such information to the public through news papers and other social media.
According to Shekarau, there is need to embark on dissemination and creation of awareness on the act for Nigerians to know about it.
“ We need to push for the effective implementation of the act or it will remain like a book in the shelf,’’ she said.
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She urged women, who had been violated, to report such incidents for the law to take its course.
Shekaru urged the media to remain in the vanguard of reporting incidents of violence against women and children to bring the desired social change.
She called for the rehabilitation and reintegration of people who were sexually abused.
Shekarau also urged the editors to enlighten the people on some harmful practices against women, especially the treatment given to them in some parts of the country when their husbands die.
She further urged parents to always monitor their children to ensure that they were not sexually violated or abused by peers or friends. (NAN)
