RESPONDING TO GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN LAGOS STATE 

With support from the European Union, The CLEEN Foundation in partnership with Project Alert on Violence Against women will from January 2006 commence the implementation of a pilot project on creating awareness about gender based violence in Lagos State.

 The project seeks to achieve the following objectives

§ Increase the reporting of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and accessing of support services by victims of abuse.
§ Improve accessibility of support services for victims of GBV in Lagos State.
§ Improving the experience of victims of abuse in reporting GBV to the Police in Lagos State.
§ Reducing the discrimination and stigmatization of victims of GBV.
CLEEN Foundation and its partners shall work with the Lagos State police Command and other role players in the State in increasing the awareness of members of the public and police officials on gender based violence with a view improving the reporting rates of the crime and police responses to it.
Background to the Project

The Gender Based Violence Project is being implemented in response to research findings, which has shown that gender-based crime is not only on the increase but also has no respect for age, social status or geography. The forms of gender based crime prevalent in Nigeria include domestic violence, sexual violence, harmful traditional practices, child prostitution and trafficking, and the use of female children for domestic labor.

However, In spite of the growth in the number of victims of gender-based crime, the reporting rate to the police has been very low in comparison with other crimes such as burglary and robbery. In a victimization survey carried out in Lagos in 2004 by the CLEEN Foundation in collaboration with the Federal Office of Statistics, only 5 percent of victims of gender-based crimes reported their victimization to the police (Alemika and Chukwuma, 2004). The figures will certainly be lower when you measure reporting rates in other cities and states in Nigeria that have neither the cosmopolitan outlook of Lagos nor the literacy level.

Among the reasons given by respondents for the low reporting rate of gender-based crimes to the police include:

° Police lack of sensitivity to the specific needs of victims
° Inability of the police to do anything
° Ridiculing of victims by the police
° Fear of inadequate protection in cases where the perpetrators are living with the victims
° Lack of where to go in the cases of domestic violence (Alemika and Chukwuma, 2004).

Yet the police are very critical in preventing and dealing with cases of gender based crime in Nigeria. Not only are they needed in arresting and bringing perpetrators to justice, they are also ideally placed to activate a chain of referral services including medical attention, counseling services, legal assistance, shelter for victims and creating awareness about gender based crimes among the general population. This project is therefore a response to phenomenon of Gender Based Violence from CLEEN Foundation and project Alert with support from the European Union.