By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna.
Women’s Rights Advancement And Protection Alternative (WRAPA), has charged media practitioners not to close their eyes against reporting issues associated with gender based violence because of their role as conscience of the society.
Secretary General of the organization, Hajiya Saudatu Shehu, made the appeal in Kaduna on Wednesday while declaring open, a workshop to sensitise journalists on reporting protocol to engender zero tolerance to violence against women.
She noted that as conscience of the society, the media practitioners should also know their roles as advocates for good governance and the voice of the voiceless, and as such they should not assume that what is happening in the society was ok.
According to her, “you are the mouth and conscience of the society, a society that decides to ignore a disease will only end up being consumed by that disease.
“Everybody deserves the right to human dignity, when you are violated your right to human dignity is compromised. Violence against women has many forms and it must be responded to.
“We must admit and we must resolve that it can not continue. Human dignity is God given and can not be taken away because of anybody, wether husband, father, brother, tenant or landlord, it is something that God gave us when he made us human beings.
“It is so important that their dignity is protected, that dignity is recognized and that dignity is responded to when it is violated.”
WRAPA is implementing a Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), project “HAKI MKONONI: a Regional legal Empowerment Programme for Women’s Rights in Kaduna and Plateau State, aimed at increasing and amplifying the demand for domestication of Women’s Protocol using the instruments of the Gender and Equal Opportunities (GEO) Bill and the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act in the two states.
