7th March, 2020
The Community Court of Justice Women’s Forum for ECOWAS on Saturday in Abuja sought for more women inclusion in Nation building for the betterment of humanity.
The women made the call during an event to mark the International Women’s Day 2020.
The theme of the women’s day was: “I Am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Right’’.
Some of the female judges were of the opinion that women inclusion was paramount in nation building, adding that the forum was working to ensure this.
Frances Ibanga, the Chairperson ECOWAS Women Forum, said that the forum has carried out advocacy to enlighten women on their rights through its series of activities with women and girls.
“We appreciate that a lot of women are aware of their rights and they are aware of the fact that they can access justice and that’s why the women forum of the court has deemed it fit to commemorate this day.
“We commemorate the day in a grand style by taking the health walk in the environs of Wuse II to show we support the cause of women.
“We are glad that women have been able to access the court and access justice when people infringe on their rights. So, this court stands in that position to assist women achieve justice.
“Also the forum has been able to engage in a number of activities by mentoring young girls and women not to keep silent when they are abused. So we are undergoing a programme which we just introduced to address some of these issues faced by women.
“We just concluded the first edition in December 2019 and later in this month, we will engage them in the second round of our mentoring programme to create more awareness for women,’’ she said.
Another member, Justice Costa Januaia said that it was the court’s mandate to ensure the right of all is safeguarded and even more so the right of women to be protected.
She said that the ECOWAS community court has been doing everything possible for the inclusion of women in balancing gender equality.
“The achievement of human right is not just the responsibility of ECOWAS, but the responsibility of all humans.
“When you speak about human right we must look at our behaviour around women and we should not only put this responsibility into the institution but by applying it in our mental and daily behaviour.
“So as not to violate these rights in our behaviour, gender equality needs to be adhered to in order to balance the system,’’ she said.
She, however, canvassed for more education for women in the response and prevention against violence so as to instill the right values in children for a better tomorrow.
“Talking about violence against women, first what we need to do is education. We must educate ourselves because women have the responsibility to educate their children from inception of infancy to their adulthood.
“So it is our responsibility to educate the children in order to instill in them values that will mould them to become better humans and to treat women properly,’’ she said.