CURBING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

 WHAT IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

Recently, I got a client who was complaining about her husband. According to her, every night he would wake her up and threaten  to kill her. He recently assaulted her by hitting her with a bottle which scared her head.

 

She is not the only woman facing this dilemma in Nigeria. According to the Nation, 25% of women in Nigeria have to go through an ordeal of domestic violence and every fourth Nigerian woman suffers domestic violence in her life time. This is disappointing because it is usually over trivia issues such as refusal to have intercourse with their spouses, delay in the preparation of food etc.

 

Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior which involves violence or other abuse by one person against another. Domestic violence can take a number of forms, physical , verbal, emotional, sexual, religious, can range from subtle coercive forms to marital rape and to violent physical abuse.

 

Domestic violence is unjustifiable. Mostly occurs when the abuser believes that the abuse is acceptable and unlikely to be reported. This is the case of most African homes. Cases of domestic violence needs to be reported to authorities-family members, police etc. before it gets out of hand.

 

 

 

CURBING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE WITH THE LAW

Domestic violence is a breach of the fundamental right. every human has a right to dignity of persons as enriched in S.34 of the constitution which provides that no person shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, several international legislations have been ratified to curb domestic violence. However, the laws against domestic violence in Nigeria are not adequate, in the Alpha-male country.

 

S.252 of the Criminal Code of the criminal code defines assault as striking, touching, moving, or otherwise apply force of any kind to the person of another, either directly or indirectly without his consent. it is worthy of note that by virtue of S.351 of the Criminal Code Act , any person who unlawfully assaults another is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable, if no greater punishment is provided imprisonment or one year.

 

Since 2000, there have been intermittent debates about enacting a law against domestic violence in Nigeria. The attempt paved a way for Domestic Violence and Other Related Bill 2006, the Bill is innovative because it allows for arrest and investigations on domestic violence. (Yinka Olomojobi) also the Maputo Protocol of 2003 was promulgated to uphold women's right, however it appears that there are lack of adequate laws to curb violence.Violence against Persons (Prohibion) Bill. A law which aims to reduce, eliminate or reduce to a minimum the cases of gender based violence, has however not been effective.

 

How would a violated woman see justice? Especially when she is an illiterate and dependent on her husband? Curbing and curtailing domestic violence starts with every individual having a duty of care to one another.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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