UNFPA Ghana Youth Leaders Hold Night Vigil Against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

The Youth Leaders (Yole) Fellows of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Ghana) are advocating for an end to the growing menace of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) especially against women and girls in the country.

The Youth Leaders together with young people from Curious Minds Ghana and the Youth Action Movement of PPAG joined the rest of the world to climax the #16 Days of Activism Against Sexual & Gender-Based Violence which ended on the Human Rights Day, 10th December, 2018.

As part of the event, a procession was held from the offices of the UNFPA to the Danqua Circle in Osu in the evening where a night vigil was held to light up the roundabout with orange colours and hosts of placards displaying key anti-SGBV messages to motorists, commuters and passer-biers.

Speaking on behalf of the Youth Leaders (Yole) Fellows of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Ghana, Jean Philip Lawson, a UNFPA Yole Fellow, said over the years, unequal power relations between the males and females became real in a way that has always favoured the males over the females.

He noted that women and girls have largely become victims of rape, sexual assault, unwanted sexual advances, Female Genital Mutilation, Child Marriage and a host of many others.

JP Lawson indicated that the mission of the night vigil is to amplify the voices on SGBV and furthers take actions that will end violence against women and girls in the country.

He therefore urges Ghanaians to be courageous enough to speak out the issues by reporting sexual and gender based violence to the Police.

The Assembly Member of Osu Ring Way Electoral Area, Mr Erasmus Odartey Xerton said community engagement and public awareness is the panacea to reducing violence against women and girls in the communities.

According to him, the interference of family members and victim’s lack of interest in such cases make it difficult to seek justice for them in the law court.

“Sometimes when a husband assaults his wife and the matter reaches us, we try to seek justice for the woman by reporting the matter to police but before you realized, the woman has gone back to the man pretending as if nothing has happened. Most times, the women will suddenly develop no or low interest in the case while other refuses to co-operate with the authorities to punish the perpetrators,” the Assembly Member intimated.

Mr. Xerton stressed that issues of SGBV are still real in the modern day civilization and therefore urge the media to launch a campaign just as they did for galamsey to help fight this canker which has eaten deep into the fabric of the society.

About 16 Days of Activism Against SGBV

16 Days of Activism Against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women , to 10 December, Human Rights Day . It was first initiated in 1991.

It falls directly under SDG #5, which aims at achieving Gender Equality by the year 2030. You would also reckon that the 17 SDGs are represented by colours, and for Goal 5—it is represented by the colour; Orange.

All over the world, the following statements—translated into these hashtags; #OrangeTheWorld, #HearMeToo are being used to commemorate this year’s celebration.