Rights of women are also human rights – Josephine Anenih

Could you tell us what the African Women Lawyers Forum of the African Bar Association is all about?  The charter that established the African Bar Association has different structures and the Women Forum is part of it. We have the Governing Council, the Executive Council, then we have fora: we have Women Forum and the […]

Could you tell us what the African Women Lawyers Forum of the African Bar Association is all about? 

The charter that established the African Bar Association has different structures and the Women Forum is part of it. We have the Governing Council, the Executive Council, then we have fora: we have Women Forum and the Youth Forum, we also have committees: Committee on Human Rights and different committees. Now, I am the chairman of the Forum for the African Women Lawyers, it is not as if it is  a wing, it is part of the African Bar Association, ABA, but  it is a forum where  things that concern  women lawyers and things that concern women generally and children are addressed. 

What is the current most pressing concern that you want to address? 

The concerns of women are myriad. 

But as a first step, what are you doing about the concerns? 

Well, the human rights of women, recognising that the rights of women are also human rights. 

Like I told you, we have a committee on human rights and usually when you are talking about human rights people don’t remember that infringement on the rights of women are women rights for instance discriminating against women in employment, paying them less than you will  pay a man, not paying them enough for the work they are doing, all those are infringements  on the right of women, denying them access to opportunities, denying them access of employment or spaces both political and social are also infringements on the rights of women. 

How do you intend to ensure such recognition of women rights? 

What we want to do is that first of all  educate the women because sometimes they don’t even know, because the women have been so socialized and they think it is normal, it  is culture, it is traditionally how it should  be, they don’t even realise that their rights are being trampled upon. 

It is the right of a girl child to go to school just as it is the right of boy to go to school, so when a family decides that they will rather send the boy to school rather than the girl, they are infringing on the right to education of that girl, so  what we want to do is mainly educating the people to understand that certain things they do are abuse of the right of women. 

What do you think has been the greatest challenge in efforts towards ensuring respect for the rights of women and the girl child? 

I think it is education, that is why I zeroed in on education, because once people are educated, once they know their rights, once they know what to do then it is easy. Ignorance is a great disease, it is a big disease, it is a handicap, so when you educate people, they get enlightened, they know and then things will start working. So  I think education, for me, is key and will be  our priority so what we are doing, like I said, we will do it  in several ways we are going to have workshops, you know it’s all over Africa, country to country. We have for  each country chapter, we call it a forum, like Nigeria has his own ABA forum, so they will encourage them to organize enlightenment programmes and so on. 

Recently, there was this talk about women against corruption…

They have understood that women are great influencers, women are change agents and that is what we have been advocating and preaching on for very long time, women are great influencers, my example is that take a man, count the number of women in his life, you start from his grandmother, his mother, his sisters, his aunties, his wife, his daughter just one man surrounded by at least six women, so who is influencing that man? Anything he does is what he learnt from woman. Women are nurturers, they are the first teachers every human being encounters, once you are born, your first teacher is your mother, so the power of the women to influence attitude is unquantifiable, it is unimaginable, great. So when we have women now preaching, talking, teaching people, their children, their husbands, their sons, their brothers to shun corruption, you know that the fight would be won very fast. 

As a former Minister of Women Affairs, what would you say were your greatest accomplishments? 

That was many years ago. I did achieve a lot. 

I didn’t re-introduce the wheel, that I must say and there had been women who had been working on what I built on, I just increased the momentum and the quantum. Again education, advocacy, women empowerment. So it was to increase the work that my predecessors did and it is still going on that is what the new minister is also doing. 

Where will you like to see the Nigerian women? 

I want to see the Nigerian women braver, more assertive, and more ready to come out into the public space, I know women are doing a lot of work at home, in  private but I need to see more women in governance, more women in the public service.