Govt establishes family courts to address gender-based violence

Worried by the increasing rate of gender-based violence, the Kaduna State Government has established family courts in the three senatorial zones of the state. The Commissioner, Human Services and Social Development, Kaduna State, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, who disclosed this at a two-day knowledge enhancement workshop on the implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) […]

Worried by the increasing rate of gender-based violence, the Kaduna State Government has established family courts in the three senatorial zones of the state.

The Commissioner, Human Services and Social Development, Kaduna State, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, who disclosed this at a two-day knowledge enhancement workshop on the implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) 2018 and Gender Equality Bill (GEB) yesterday, said with the establishment of the family courts, victims are assured of justice on cases that are usually waved off as “family issues”.

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She, however, disclosed that critical stakeholders are currently establishing a sex offences’ register where the pictures, names, and other details of perpetrators who have been convicted will be published, thereby naming and shaming them to deter others from such crimes.

She stressed that creating awareness and the full implementation of the VAPP law will help in addressing gender-based violence in the state, noting that training the implementers of the law is equally a step in the right direction, especially to those saddled with the responsibility of dispensing the law.

A Kaduna State High Court judge, Justice Edward Andrew, while stressing the importance of the VAPP law and GEB bill, said “For some time, there has been an astronomical rise in cases of gender and sexual violence not only in Kaduna State but globally.”