2023: Response centre launched to address violence against women

The Women’s Situation Room Nigeria (WSRN), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), has inaugurated an early warning and response centre to address potential violence against women in 2023 election.

The National Coordinator, WSRN Nigeria, Prof. Joy Onyesoh, inaugurated the centre in Abuja, saying the situation of the country warrants such.

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The event was with support from UN WOMEN and the Government of Canada.

“Over the years and from past observations, the group identified that election is a conflict trigger which hinders participation of women in the electoral process,” she said.

According to her, the WSRN was a women civil society led initiative seeking to increase women’s substantive participation in political process and conflict prevention in accordance with UNSCR 1325.

She said, “Nigeria has over the past years struggled to prevent the incidence of election related Violence Against Women (VAWE).

”From past observation of general and staggered elections, WSRN identified that violence against women in election is a challenge and impedes the ability of Nigeria to conduct free, fair, and inclusive election.

“The published report from our analysis of the 2019 party primaries also identified the forms of violence experienced by women in politics.

“The more efforts are made to overcome this threat to democracy, the more hydra-headed it grows.”

Onyesoh added that election related violence in Nigeria could be grouped into three -pre-election, election and post-election violence.

She said early warning and early response (EWAR) was considered one of the pillars of operational conflict prevention practiced by international organisations, research institutes and NGOs.

She said that it has advanced the knowledge of conflicts and strategies to address them which formed the basis for launch of the centre.
Onyesoh said that the goal of WSRN was to ensure that all elections in Nigeria were peaceful and women and youth played substantive role in sustaining and building peace in communities, state and national levels.