The Nigerian’s perspective of the WLUML’s global campaign to end the brutal practice of stoning

Sequel to the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, where states were called upon to abide by their international human rights obligations and ban the act of stoning in countries where this still exists in law and practice. To this end, the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) in collaboration with its global partners launched a campaign with the ultimate goal to end the brutal practice of stoning globally.
 

In the short-term by November 25, 2013, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, this campaign seeks to garner a critical mass of 10,000 supporters worldwide to sign the online petition, advocating for a UN resolution against stoning on Change.org. In the medium-to-long term, the campaign’s goal is to completely ban stoning in countries where it still exists in law and criminalize those who engage in this heinous practice worldwide.
 

In line with this mandate, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, as one of the joint partners in the WLUML global campaign to stop stoning, highlights this act from the Nigerian’s perspective. Stoning as a legalised form of punishment in Nigeria for sexual offences (such as adultery and fornication - Zina) can be traced back to the institution of Sharia penal code in the northern region since 1960, some of the punishments in its penal code includes 100 lashes (flogging) for engaging in any sexual relationship if the individual is unmarried.
 

In 1999, the Zamfara State governor at the time, reintroduced and expanded Sharia penal codes in the state. This action of implementing Sharia penal code was replicated by eleven other northern governors in their respective states, namely Kano, Katsina, Niger, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Gombe, Sokoto, Jigawa, Yobe, and Kebbi. Stoning is the prescribed penalty in all these states as the punishment for women convicted of “illicit sexual affair”.
 

Stoning is an ancient form of capital punishment. There are historical reports of stoning from ancient Greece but the act of stoning is still retained by some religion till date, yet the act precede most religion. Stoning is often powered and executed based on misinterpretation of religious text and on cultural grounds; of which women are the most susceptible. Till date, stoning as an act of punishment for sexual offences (Zina) has never been implemented in Nigeria, although we have had near case occurrences which include:

• In 2002, Safiya Hussaini was the first woman to be sentenced to stoning in  Sokoto State for giving birth to a child as a single woman. Her sentence was overturned on her first appeal.
• In 2002, Aminal Lawal was the second woman to be sentenced to stoning in Katsina State for adultery and conceiving a child out of wedlock. The father of the child was not persecuted for lack of evidence and deemed innocent by the court with a DNA test. Her conviction was later overturned.

The sheer possibility of the cruel punishment of stoning being executed in Nigeria is in itself a tormenting thought. Now is the time for Nigerians as well as citizens from any country where such an act exist in law and practice, to join this campaign against stoning and urge the UN to take action on abolishing stoning in law.
 

To join the campaign, click on this link United Nations Secretary General & the OHCHR: End Stoning Now

References
USCIRF Annual Report 2013 - Countries of Particular Concern: Nigeria 

Document – Nigeria: Rape – The silent weaponSafiya Hussaini

Aminal Lawal 

 

Press Release: The retention of the provision of Section 29(4)(b) in the amendment process of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) strongly condemns the recent happenings with the Nigerian constitutional amendment process in the Senate to retain the provision of Section 29(4) (b) which says that “any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age", This provision would imply that a female child even at birth, if married, is deemed to be of full age.

This is particularly disheartening given the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria, primarily due to the prevalence of Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) / Rectovaginal fistula (RVF). The majority of the cases of VVF in Nigeria are as a result of early girl child marriage. Early marriage in many instances leads to the withdrawal of girls from schools and thrusts upon them marital and reproductive responsibilities for which they are neither physically nor mentally mature to carry out.

BAOBAB sees this clause as a clear violation of the rights of the girl child and various international treaties such as:

• The Child Rights Act 2003: Section 21 & 22 which prohibits child marriage and betrothal .
• Convention of Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): Article 16 (2) which says the betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.
• Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa Article 6 (b) which provides that the minimum age of marriage for women is 18 years.

BAOBAB is using this medium to call on the National Assembly, Senate and the Nigerian government to:

1. Remove the contentious provision of Section 29(4) (b) from the Constitution.
2. Fulfill its obligations of implementing international treaties which Nigeria signed and ratified that would protect rights of the girl child such as The Child Rights Act, CEDAW & the Protocol to the African Charter

Signed:

Anne Lawal
Ag. Executive Director
BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights

Stop Stoning of Women Global Campaign

In line with the newly adopted UN Security Council resolution 2106 (2013); States bear the primary responsibility to respect  and ensure the human rights of all persons within their territory, as provided by  international law.  This embraces women’s political, social and economic empowerment as well as gender equality; it emphasizes that parties to armed conflict bear the primary responsibility to ensure the protection of civilians; including national ownership and responsibility to address the root causes of sexual violence in armed conflict.
 

BAOBAB for Women Human Rights, commend the effort of the UN in adopting the Security Council resolution 2106 (2013). We earnestly hope that States would embrace and put in law this resolution to provide great support for victims of torture. In this vein, we enjoin you to take part in the Stop Stoning campaign to end laws that promotes Violent Punishments and Torture Against Women such as stoning, by signing on to the petition (http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/united-nations-secretary-general-the-ohchr-end-stoning-now) and circulating the information amongst your networks. Thank you
 

Related links
http://www.wluml.org/media/commission-status-women-57-statement-stoning
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45253&Cr=sexual+violence&Cr1=conflict
http://www.un.org/en/sc/inc/pages/pdf/adv/sres21062013.pdf

Women in Conflict and Peace-Building

Over the past two decades, Nigeria has experienced increased levels of insecurity and violence which has claimed many lives and property. The state of insecurity has affected virtually every aspect of social and economic development and women have so far been especially affected by such violence and insecurity because of their peculiar roles as homemakers, caregivers as well as their relatively poor economic status.   

Unarmed women and children thus continue to bear the brunt of massacres that occur in different parts of the country, especially in northern Nigeria.  The mass killing that occurred in Jos, Plateau state in 2010, for example, resulted in the death of many Nigerians most of whom were women and children.  To date, the number of the victims affected by that massacre has not been confirmed.  In recognition of the precarious situation that women found themselves in that tragedy, many women organized a peaceful “wailing” protest in Abuja demanding justice and protection from such attacks.  The massacre brought about condemnations from both local and international agencies and government officials.  It also brought to light women’s interest and role in peace building processes that aim to provide rehabilitation for victims of conflict and establish preventive systems. 

Recent events of conflicts, bombing of commercial and public places in Nigeria show that conflicts must be managed, not ignored and there must be concrete efforts for peace building. Such processes must also be completely inclusive of all interests represented in the country.  Without peace there can be no meaningful development and without women’s involvement in the design and implementation of policies and programs on conflict resolution and peace-building such activities will fail to achieve its purpose.  On  October 31 2000 the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted the Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR1325), stating in article 2 of the Resolution: “Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision- making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution”.  In addition, various other international and regional instruments as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states clearly women’s right to protection in conflict situations and their involvement (without discrimination) in peace building and conflict resolution processes. Nigeria is signatory to a host of such international instruments and laws.

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights in recognition of the rights of women in conflicts situation and peace building process dedicates her 2013 calendar to women in conflicts. The 2013 calendar highlights quotations from legal instruments that outlaw violence against women in conflicts and recommend women’s involvement in peace-building processes.

Changing the Feminine Face of Poverty in Nigeria: Challenges of Poverty Facing Women and BAOBAB’s Strategic Interventions - by Yewande Okoya

Seventy percent of those living in absolute poverty in our world - that is starving or on the edge of starvation - are female. All over the world, women and children are the mass of the poor and the poorest of the poor.

In Nigeria, as in many other developing countries, the new face of poverty is woman. This has become an economic phenomenon as the gap between women and men caught in the cycle of poverty has continued to widen in the past decade, a phenomenon commonly referred to as ‘the feminization of poverty’. This underscores the fact that where an issue affects (negatively) both man and woman, in most cases the woman suffers more than the man. In the situation of single parenting for instance, families headed by women are poorer compared with those headed by men.

In any society, women should play a central role in shaping future generations, physiologically, emotionally, morally, spiritually and intellectually, but when women are poor, they are not free and their choices are limited and so, are unable to perform this central role the failure of which has dire consequences for future generations.

The feminization of poverty has recently become a significant problem in Nigeria as in other developing countries with economics in transition as a short-term consequence of the process of political, economic and social transformation. In addition to economic factors, the rigidity of socially ascribed gender roles and women’s limited access to power, education, training and productive resources as well as other emerging factors that may lead to securities for families are responsible. Due to these gender roles, women are not given equal opportunity as the men to be educated and liberated economically because in some parts of society, educating a woman is seen as a waste of resources, since a man will marry her; the onus is on the man to take up responsibilities. Even in parts of society where education and economic empowerment are accepted and promoted, women are expected to perform majority of household chores and take sole responsibility of childcare even when both the male and female partners have full time jobs.

These stereotypes and socialization have continued to make women worldwide far more likely to be poorer than men. Men in particular and the nation as a whole, need to realize that this issue is not just a “women's issue" but it is is about your mother and your grandmother. It's about your sisters and it's about the future of your daughters and how to move this country forward because women make-up about 50% of the population and as such can not be ignored.

Challenges of Poverty and BAOBAB’s Interventions

1. Lack of access to good health care services. In this regards and essentially, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights believes strongly in the power of ‘empowering’. BAOBAB empowers women and girls through its Leadership Training by building their capacities as leaders where they (women) must allow improvement and be resourceful without depending on anyone’s wealth for daily sustenance.

2. Lack of access to information. – BAOBAB provides women with information in accessing economic and educational opportunities, as well as the autonomy needed to take advantage of such opportunities.

3. Lack of access to affordable Legal representation. The importance of training women and girls to be self dependent, resourceful sharing of relevant and useful information, providing women with skills, boosting their morale that gives confidence and self dependency for optimum achievement of goals and aspiration matters most to BAOBAB as we totally agree that they (women) should be shown how to fish rather than giving them fish.

4. Encountering difficulties as it relates to funds while making interventions relevant to women’s issues at the community level. Most non governmental organizations work on the larger base while some women groups work mainly at the community levels who are familiar with the issues on ground. BAOBAB’s 14 outreach team states functions primarily in this regard. Also, BAOBAB re-granted some amount of money received from the American World Jewish Service to some selected women groups for specific interventions in these communities. The idea of the re-grant was to basically fund women groups who could not access funds from funders that requires funding database which mostly leaves the issues on ground unattended to.

5. Domestication of women’s human rights instruments. BAOBAB continues to play and lead advocacy roles at the state, national, regional and international levels in ensuring the ratification, domestication, implementations (as the case may be) of instruments that attends to the concerns of women. BAOBAB played an active role in ensuring that Lagos State Government domesticated the violence against women bill. BAOBAB also coordinated the NGO CEDAW Coalition and produced a Shadow Report in response the Nigerian 6th Country Report to CEDAW.

What we can do

Women must be identified and situated as a specific target group in the national poverty eradication programmes. In this regard, funders, foundations and non governmental organisations should inculcate into its programme plan provisions for gender training for senior decision-makers to mainstream gender perspective into sectoral development planning.

Women’s NGOs and other organisations should ensure that Nigeria undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land, as required in the Beijing Platform for Action.

References

1. Adidu, Paper Presentation on Feminization of Poverty in Nigeria,December 2005.

2. Callagham, Hamber and Takira; A Triad of Oppression – Violence, Women and Poverty: Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

3. Women and Poverty, FWCW Platform for Action, 2005

4. www.alternet.org/feminism_poverty

Women as Participants in both Leadership and Politics. - BAOBAB's 2011 Calendar (Advocacy tool)

The Convention on the Political Rights of Women, 193 U.N.T.S. 135 which entered into force on July 7th, 1954 recognizes that everyone has the rights to take part in the government of her/his country directly or indirectly. The eleven articles of the convention desire to equalize the status of women and men in the enjoyment and exercise of their political rights.

In Nigeria and in most countries of the world, there are few women in positions of responsibility and decision making. Often they are discriminated against in political and public life at all levels of decision making as evidenced by the unequal number of women in the corridors of power. Women’s ideas are often left unspoken or unheard even when they are present during discussions and decision making assemblies.

This year, Nigeria will hold general elections and BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, in her effort to uphold the principle of equality and equity, continues a series of leadership and political training for women and girls to raise awareness of their political rights and responsibilities as citizens. We aim to increase women's political participation and leadership at all levels of social interaction and decision making regardless of ethnicity, religion or political inclination.

'Make Your Voice Heard! - A Presentation by Sofia Ek (an Intern with BAOBAB)@2010

SHOW OF SHAME - Linda Aina

Ahhh!! not again and not when Nigeria is about to be 50 years. The members of House Representatives have decided to throw caution into the air by dragging our great country Nigeria in the mud.

These legislators are supposed to be making and enacting laws that would move Nigeria forward but rather they had decided to rain insults on themselves and to exchange blows in the watchful eyes of young students who are the leaders of tomorrow. What moral benefits do we expect these future leaders to imbibe from the ‘show of shame’ by our House of Representatives? I can imagine the thoughts that were going on the minds of these young ones, what future does the nation have for us? This question is crucial and need to be answered.

Millions of Nigerians are out there in abject poverty, no jobs, insecurity as a result of high rate of robbery and kidnappings. Instead of this group of individuals to uphold the oath they had taken to uphold this nation and its citizens, they are busy misappropriating funds and embarrassing the nation.

The rule of law should be allowed to take its place, the nine million Naira scandal should be properly investigated and all culprits should face the wrath of the law.

May God rescue our great nation Nigeria.