In their relentless effort to curb femicide in Nigeria, the DOHS Cares Foundation again embarked on a demonstration march to the Lagos State House of Assembly to protest against Femicide in Nigeria on the 30th of August 2024. This is coming on the heels of their live Femicide Dashboard unveiling which took place on the 15th of August 2024, revealing the data of about 46 women and girls who have been intentionally killed by their intimate partners, acquaintances or relatives within the first 6 months of the year.
Today, 30 more women and girls have been been killed, two months after, with Christianah Idowu, whose death was discovered on the 5th of September 2024, being the 76th victim.
In April, DOHS Cares had marched to demand for Legislation of femicide and submitted a draft of a bill on femicide to the House but had been largely ignored till August, when the House replied that the bill will constitute duplicity of laws since femicide is a subset of murder which the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency law and Criminal Law of Lagos State are sufficient to address. In other words, there is no difference between homicide and femicide.
This compelled the DOHS Cares Foundation to promptly organize a demonstration to highlight the distinct nature of the crime of femicide.
Speaking at the demonstration, the founder of DOHS Cares Foundation Ololade Ajayi, said that the legislators’ response is an under estimation of femicide and therefore inadequate, citing the fact that prior to DOHS Cares’ documentation of the cases in their dashboard, there was lack of data on femicide in Nigeria, therefore the crime of femicide cannot be sufficiently addressed since it is yet an unacknowledged phenomenon. She said their protest was to challenge existing bias against the term femicide and demonstrate each victim’s case to emphasize that the gender-related killings of women and girls must be transmitted from the personal to the political.
In her words, “The personal is political, we must turn femicide in Nigeria into political statements and take femicide from the home to the street , we must name it and grieve these lives stolen by patriarchal violence.”
Femicide is as a result of the belief, law and system that devalues women and girls, and this is why the DOHS Cares’ campaign is themed #CallItFemicide to demand that the media stop perpetuating the narratives that kills women, to clarify that the notion of gender-related killings of women and girls differs from other types of homicides as it refers to homicide/murders of women and girls that are gender-related.
The statistical framework for measuring gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide) defines it as the intentional killing of women and girls because they are women and girls. it is primarily done by men who are either their intimate partner or relative and acquaintance.
The root causes of femicide include stereotyped gender roles, discrimination towards women and girls, inequality and unequal power relations between women and men in society; all of these characterize the specific context in which such killings take place.
Violence then occurs when women’s behavior are perceived to not be in line with social norms or stereotyped gender roles.
Feminists and allies who joined the DOHS CARES FOUNDATION demonstrated the experience of victims and survivors left behind by femicide as doubly bound from speaking and from receiving justice. With an effigy of Lady Justice who was blind to the victims’ plight, one can deduce from the lack of legislation on femicide means that the victims are unlikely to receive justice and that law is biased against the victims.
Globally, femicide is a pandemic, and with women’s rights organizations and government institutions taking action against femicide, they have been able to significantly reduce femicide in many countries as well as bring justice to victims.
DOHS Cares Foundation plans to continue its awareness campaigns against femicide and to execute physical campaigns and marches to demand for legislation of femicide during the 2024 16-Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls. The organization is counting on feminist groups and allies, women and girls, other rights organizations, activists and government institutions to effect this social change, as they have vowed to continue demanding a safer country for women and girls in Nigeria. This has been receiving tremendous results through their rescue programs, which has worked on over 200 cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse since inception.
They intend to continue advocacy and awareness and push for legislation on femicide and encourage organizations to support them in raising awareness for increased sensitization on Femicide, training Journalists and first responders of SGBV on femicide, and to document patterns of Femicide.
Het Actiefonds an organization which supports human rights activists supported the #CallItFemicide campaign.
