Legal practitioners, law enforcement agents and officials of the Osun State Ministries of Justice, Health and Women Affairs have been trained on how to ensure that survivors of Sexual ans Gender Based Violence get justice.
The professionals were trained in Osogbo, capital of the state at a 3-day workshop on Implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law and the Role of the Judiciary, organised by a non-governmental organisation, Value Female Network Africa in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund.
The lawyers who are members of the Nigerian Bar Association in Osun, promised to prioritise survivor centered approach in adjudication of SGBV cases that come their ways.
Addresing the participants, a Chief Magistrate in the state, Mrs Olufunke Oyeniyi lamented worsening violence and abuse of women and girls in Osun, saying the culture of silence among survivors should be discouraged.
Oyeniyi challenged stakeholders, especially lawyers to lend themselves to thorough trainings and retraining on VAPP Law, saying the legal document is one of the ways of addressing SGBV cases in the state.
The magistrate said many women get abused in marriage and they remain in the relationship because they are economically empowered to stand on their own.
Also speaking on gender based violence in Osun, the Head of Department of Public Health, Fountain University, Osogbo, Mrs Kafayat Adegbore, disclosed that children and women are most violated and abused in the society and tasked security agencies to always act fast whenever cases are reported to them.
The participants were trained on how to deploy VAPP Law in getting justice for SGBV survivors.
In his remarks, Samuel Abimbade, Nigeria’s Focal person for Inter-African Committees On Harmful Practices Affecting Women and Children, believed that awareness and understanding of VAPP Law would assist greatly in securing timely justice for survivors and in return, serve as deterrence for potential violators.
Abimbade who is also the Head of Programmes for Value Female Network Africa, said it was worrisome that not many SGBV cases have been tried using the VAPP Law, hence the need to train lawyers, security operatives and other relevant stakeholders on the workings of the VAPP law.
He said the organisation distributed copies of the VAPP Law to participants free, noting that, “The workshop was on further enforcement of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law (VAPP Law). The VAPP law has been implemented in Osun State since 2021 but we don’t have enough cases reported of victims that have been prosecuted using the law.
“We believe that the training has helped legal practitioners and law enforcement agencies to understand the need to further prosecute and how well to ensure that there is a smooth process at the initial stage of the prosecution and all through to court and beyond.”
Abimbade added that, “The law has been in place but we want it to be beyond a policy document or legal document. So, we are looking at how this law becomes more practicable and that is why we produced the VAPP Law for the lawyers and law enforcement officers for free because some of them don’t have it.
“We want them to understand how better to protect women and girls and much more, protect humans in general. We want the lawyers to start prosecuting and also engaging the process of prosecution and ensure that it is hitch-free.”
