By: Saidu Jalloh
To curtail gender-based violence, the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs will launch its sixteen days of activism on Monday, November 25th, 2024, at the Bintumani Conference Center.
The activism aims to engage men and women in the fight against sexual Gender-Based Violence. The event will bring together government officials, development partners, UN Agencies,, and various stakeholders.
The Minister of Gender and Children Affairs, Dr. Isata Mahoi, in her opening statement, saw a lot of gender-based violence cases and gave a lot of examples of how gender-based violence had resulted in the loss of lives. She mentioned that it is very critical for them in that space to be able to step up to work together to ensure that they end gender-based violence at all costs, especially violence against women and children.
Dr. Mahoi underscored the importance of a country drawing a strategic plan for collaboration with partners and working together as partners and parents to be able to protect women and girls from all forms of abuse. However, Minister Mahoi also acknowledged that men and boys had also gone through domestic violence and sexual violence but added that it is important for them to monitor all of those incidences.
She mentioned that as they approached the sixteen days of activism, her ministry’s response to that particular crisis was to collaborate with the judiciary and police to ensure that justice is served to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. She also mentioned that the Ministry of Gender and Children is committed to strengthening the legal framework and enhancing the support system available to those affected.
Minister Mahoi advanced that her ministry achievements are outlined in combating sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone and that the press conference is a platform to highlight and reaffirm their dedication to providing a safer space for women and girls.
“The future of this country depends on women and children, and for them, it is very important to work together as a team,” Dr. Mahoi explained.
Dr. Mahoi announced the theme for this year’s sixteen days of activism, ‘Unite to End Violence Against Women’, and that they had a collective responsibility as a nation to end violence against women and girls. They were also going to use this year’s advocacy forum to officially launch the Real Man Campaign.
USU Malaya, Senior Advisor Policy and Strategic Planning at the UN Women also explained that gender based violence is one of the most pervasive human right violations on individuals, families and societies. She highlighted that globally 7, 36,000,000 women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
She stated that data is unacceptable but urgent, and in Sub Sahara Africa, where Sierra Leone is placed, the gender-based violence rate is alarming and high, with 62% of women experiencing gender-based violence and 30% of girls married before turning age 18, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation affected 86% of women age 14-49 years.
She narrated that the sixteen days of activism lie within the context of that kind of statistics, and the Beijing declaration and platform for actions adopted in 1995 remained the visionary roadmap that identified gender-based violence as one of the critical areas and laid the foundation for global stakeholders to combat gender and sexual violence.
She climaxed that this activism would guide women and men and strengthen the mechanisms in the one-stop centers for survivors, and the services in the center would be fully equipped. She said they are pleading for the establishment of safe homes for survivors because there are not many safe homes, and they don’t want survivors to return to their communities, where they would be stigmatized.