Sodiq Ojuroungbe
The United Nations has lamented that Nigerian women are disproportionately impacted during conflicts and called for their inclusion in resolving conflicts and peace-building in the country.
The UN Women Country Representative, Beatrice Eyong made the call on Monday, in Abuja during a sensitisation workshop organised for state lawmakers by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies in conjunction with the Norwegian Embassy.
Lawmakers from Bauchi, Gombe, Borno, Yobe, Kaduna and Adamawa states were mainly represented by their principal officers at the sensitisation workshop.
Eyong, who was represented by the Deputy Director of Representation, UN, Lansana Inonneh argued that it will be most unfair to exclude women who experience insecurity the most from the process of dispute resolution.
While stressing that women should be embedded in the resolution process, given their status in society, the Country Representative insisted that women and girls must benefit from relief packages provided during the recovery phase of the conflict.
Eyong advocated that women and girls must be protected and secure during crises to avoid gender-based violence, among others.
She, however, urged the lawmakers at the workshop to play a more active role in supporting the implementation of the State Action Plans on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 by “Drafting pertinent legislation, allocating adequate funding through budgetary allocation, and taking on related oversight duties in their respective states.”
According to Eyong, resolution 1325 (2000) addresses the impact of war on women and the importance of women’s full and equal participation in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction.
The resolution also calls for special measures to protect women and girls from conflict-related sexual violence and outlines gender-related responsibilities of the UN in different political and programmatic areas.
The Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, Abubakar Sulaiman said the third National Action Plan is currently being developed for Nigerian women.
The DG, who was represented at the workshop by the Legal Director of the institute, Shuaibu Danwanka, said they are collaborating with the UN Women to bring together all states that have SAPS to deliberate and share experiences on the implementation process.
He revealed that 16 out of the 36 States in Nigeria have domesticated the NAPs, with Local Action Plans taken across at least 16 local government areas.
Danwanka stressed that it is essential that legislators assume collaborative ownership of the SAPs and become familiar with their content while ensuring oversight of their strategies and levels of implementation.
According to him, this may require that State Houses of Assembly formulate relevant laws to ensure that SAPs reflect women’s perspectives and that women are given full recognition and consideration in security matters, subject to the dictates of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace, and security.
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