By Kelvin Obambon
Amnesty International Nigeria (AIN) has used this year’s International Women’s Day celebration to draw attention to the increasing rate of femicide in the world and Nigeria in particular.
Commemorating the day in Calabar the Cross River State capital, on Saturday, AIN organized a walk themed “Accelerate Action Against Femicide.” The march took off from the University of Calabar Library to the female hostel in ‘Malabo’ and terminated at the Main Gate. It was aimed at raising awareness on femicide, domestic violence, and women’s rights.
Speaking during the event, Dr Blessing Ntamu, president of Springs of Life Association for Women and Girl Child Development Initiative, explained that femicide is an intentional killing of a woman motivated by gender. She revealed that in 2023 alone 85,000 women were killed, out of which 51,000 were killed by their intimate partners, meaning that in every 10 minutes a woman dies by femicide around the world. She said while femicide is increasing globally, a lot of cases, especially in Nigeria and Cross River State go unreported.
She averred that over 95 percent of women are killed because of their gender as opposed to 3 percent of men killed on the basis of gender. She declared that 1 in every 3 women has undergone one form of gender based violence or the other.
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According to Ntamu, who is also the head of external and employment relations and partnerships, University of Calabar, femicide could be attributed to factors such as socio-cultural practices and family upbringing that promote patriarchal sentiment and
place preference on the male child. She pointed out that femicide is not a standalone event as it is an aspect of gender based violence.
She said the right time to take action against femicide “is now. Violence thrives when people keep silence. When you see something say something. Raise your sons to respect a woman. It is only weak men that raise their hands on women. We need to educate our male children. We have to dismantle all forms of discrimination against women. We have to say no to female genital mutilation. We have to say no to harmful cultural practices. We have to strive for equality. We need to do better. We need to make sure that the society goes in the right direction.”
Dr Ntamu called for strong legislation against femicide and all forms of gender based violence in the society, stating that punitive measures must be put in place to serve as deterrence. She equally harped on the need to strengthen and support institutions that are first line responders in femicide and gender based violence cases.
Also speaking, the Coordinator for Amnesty International Nigeria Supporters Group in Cross River State, Gabriel Rockwell, urged the males to support the females, stating that “they are our sisters, they are our mothers, they are our wives, girlfriends, nieces and cousins. We should step out and stop this menace that’s happening in our society.”
Rockwell said that AIN has been doing a lot of work over the years to prevent femicide and other forms of gender based violence.
“We have opened channels. We have conducted education campaigns, trainings, workshops, talk shows. We are the only one in Nigeria right now that have specifically picked out femicide and campaign against it. The global theme for the International Women’s Day is slightly different, but we at Amnesty we picked out femicide because it is on the rise,” he said.
On her part, Miss Nwawube Kosisochukwu, President of the Amnesty International Nigeria Human Rights Clinic in the University of Calabar, said “we have been constantly campaigning against femicide. In our own little way we have taken sensitization on femicide to males in the University community. We also go to secondary schools to spread this message. The issue of femicide didn’t just start with the men. It started from when they are growing up.”
The event brought together members of the university community, including the Female Law Students Forum, and the International Law Students Association.
