Gender based
Violence: Effect, Prevention and Management Tips
Gender-based
violence has remained at the front-burner of many discourses aimed at mentoring
and moulding the character of the youths. Given the daily pressures adolescents
encounter as they transit to adulthood, it’s imperative to raise awareness of
the youths on the dangers inherent in violence, particularly gender-related
ones.
During puberty, young ones are assaulted by their new feelings and
emotions. They face daily pressures from parents, teachers, bosses, fellow
peers and even their opposite sex. They are exposed to the relentless influence
of movies, media, music and the internet. WHO describes Adolescents period as
“a period of transition commonly characterized by stress and anxiety? The
Nigeria Health policy describes adolescents as those within the age of 10-24
years.
To raise the
drum-beats of the crusade against gender-based violence in Anambra State, sixty
participants from State Reproductive Health Unit, LGA Reproductive Health
Coordinating units, Community Based Organization (CBOs), Faith Based
Organizations (FBOs) and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were recently
trained during a workshop tagged ‘‘Sensitization, Prevention and Management of
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) for the Adolescent and Youths in the State’’. They
were exposed to different types of gender-based violence and how to prevent,
handle and manage them when they occur.
The
Programme/Workshop Coordinator and one of the speakers, Mrs Amaka Okoye, in her
overview of the training x-rayed the concept, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and
its forms. Gender Based Violence (GBV) refers to violence that targets
individuals or groups on the bases of their gender. Committee on the
Elimination and Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) defines it as “Violence
that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women
disproportionately”.
This includes acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual
harm or suffering, the threat of such acts of coercion and other deprivations
of liberty. This does not mean that all acts against a woman are gender-based
violence or that all victims of GBV are female.
The UN
Declaration on GBV states in its introduction that violence against women “is a
manifestation of agnostically unequal power relation between men and women
which have lead to domination, over discrimination against women by men and to
the prevention of the full advancement of women, and that violence against
women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are subjected into
a subordinate position compared to men.”
The Workshop Coordinator, after conceptualizing GBV went further to
explain various concepts or terminologies associated with GBV scenarios.
According to
Mrs. Okoye, sexual violence refers to any act, attempt or threat of a sexual
nature that result in physical, psychological and emotional harm. It includes
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, while gender is the term used to denote
the social characteristics assigned to men and women; it is constructed on the
basis of different factors such as age, religion, national, ethnic and social
origin. Gender is learned through socialization. It is not static or innate,
but involves responding to changes in the social, political and cultural
environment.
People are born female or
male (sex); they learn how to be girls and boys, and then become women and men.
Gender also refers to ‘‘what it means to be a boy or a girl, women or men, in a
particular society or culture’’. She asserts that ‘‘society teaches expected
attitudes behaviors, roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and
privileges of men and women on any context’’, adding that ‘‘this is learned
behavior know as gender identity’’.
Another
concept in GBV situation is violence. Violence is a means of control and oppression
that can include emotional, social or economic force, coercion or pressure, as
well as physical assault or threatening someone with a weapon; it can also be
covert, in the form of intimidation, threats, persecution, deception or other
forms of psychological or social pressure.
The person targeted by this kind of
violence is compelled by the Perpetrator to behave as expected or to act
against her will or Consent through coercion, and physical threat. The
participants were also exposed to different types of sexual/Gender Based
Violence, which includes rape and marital rape, child sexual abuse, forced and
attempted rape, sexual exploitation/abuse, forced prostitution. Others include
sexual harassment, sexual violence as a weapon of war and torture, physical
violence, emotional and psychological violence.
By Ebele Egoh
(PRO, Anambra State Ministry of Health)
