CSOs, Traditional Authorities Schooled on Gender Base Violence

By Boris Esono and Yollande Mbombe in Buea

Workshop Participants sharing ideas on how to curb GBV

A 2-day symposium on building community level agenda to end violence against women and girls in Cameroon last February 24 ended on the campus of Pan African Institute for Development- West Africa, PAID-WA with officials resolving to intensify the fight against violence against women and girls.

            The event organized by the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation, LUKMEF in collaboration with PAID-WA brought together a host of civil society organizations, NGOs, traditional authorities, lawyers, police officers from across the south west region, and the regional delegate of women’s affairs, Judith Moffa.

According to the focal person Juliana Acha, the project is geared towards bringing out measures to eliminate violence on women and girls and enhancing people who provide structures for victims of violence. “We are also working to enhance the quality of services, structures and individuals provide when they are supporting victims of violence”.

            She further added that the role of the first line response to survivors of Violence against Women/Girls cannot be over emphasized. “The various officials present are at the front line of response as a client can met them at anytime, even at home and they should be able to create a first line response. With an enabling environment, the client may be able to disclose the problems they have and the violence experience so that they can receive adequate services and at the same time the perpetrators will be brought to book”.

            Violence against women is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women which has led to domination over and discrimination against women by men. Violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions compared to women (DEVAW preamble).

            Various forms of gender base violence exists in the country such as battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation, and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation.

            To Titanji Beatrice, if people know about the prevailing situation of gender base violence, then it will be reduced to a greater extent. “The notion that gender base violence is only perpetrated on women is not true as the males also suffer from it”. “The first thing with a gender base issue is that we blame the victims. The blame game should be removed as when we start asking why, the victim curls and does not say things then we damage a life”. Titanji added

            During the meeting women were equally called upon to stand their grounds and say no against gender base violence with respect to sex. According to them, there should be understanding between the man and women on the issue of sex and each party should understand the situation of one another and not take advantage of the other.

            If the rate of gender base violence is to be minimize, essential health care services, social services, justice and policing services must be available in sufficient quantity and quality to all victims and survivors of violence regardless of her place of residence, nationality, ethnicity, class, migrant or refugee status, language and any other characteristics not considered.