By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
In an effort to fast track prosecution of cases of rape of minors and other related offenses, the media and other humanitarian organizations have been called upon to advocate for the establishment of a designated State high court in Bauchi that could be trying such cases.
This has become imperative considering the punitive provisions contained in the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) (VAPP) law of Bauchi State where a case of rape of minor attracts death by hanging of which the magistrate courts cannot apply.
The Executive Director of a Bauchi based civil society organization, Ikra Foundation for Women and Youth Development, Amina Garuba Ahmed made the call recently during an interactive session with the media tagged ,“Sexual and Gender Based Violence Justice Network (SJN) Cluster” program.
During the highly interactive media parley that attracted robust and productive inputs from the participants, Ahmed reiterated that when a specialized State Court is established to try rape of minors, it will mitigate the long wait associated with the prosecution of such cases and accelerate convictions that can serve as deterrent to perpetrators of the heinous crime.
While commending Bauchi State Government for assenting the VAPP law to check the excesses of rape and other form of gender and domestic violence, the ED said that a lot more needs to be done in articulating the practice direction of the law for its effective implementation in the State.
According to the ED, the articulation of practice direction would assist in addressing some of the gaps in the VAPP law especially looking at the fact that multiple State MDAs are involved in the implementing of the law.
Other areas that were mentioned during the media engagement were centered around sensitization of caregivers to be aware that the law protects victims of rape from the glare of general public during trials to minimize the stigma associated with rape cases.
Participants also unanimously agreed that there is the need to adequately fund and improve human resource needs of the designated referral centers meant for rape victims and the shelter center established by the State Government to aide their healing process.
At the end of the media engagement, participants made commitment to advocate for improvement of the areas highlighted during the parley through their editorial contents.
Our correspondent reports that the SGBV Justice Network (SJN) is an advocacy Cluster under the USAID-funded Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project led by Lawyers Alert.
In partnership with Palladium – SCALE -SJN is implementing a project that seeks to consolidate on an already existing partnership to deepen the efforts on implementation of Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) and Administration of Criminal Justice Laws in Bauchi, Benue, Enugu, Kaduna and Osun.
The project aims to achieve speedy justice service delivery for survivors of SGBV and resolution of SGBV cases in Nigeria, with a focus on component 5 – Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) Sector.