LAWYERS
and activists have called for better enforcement of women and children’s
rights.
They said poor enforcement of the laws had emboldened rights
abusers to act with impunity, leaving women and children at the receiving end.
They spoke in Lagos during the launch of a book written by a
rights activist, Dr. Yinka Olomojobi, titled: Human Rights on Gender, Sex and
the law in Nigeria.
Speakers, including Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, Prof Oluyemisi
Obilade, Mr. Kunle Ogunba (SAN) and Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, who reviewed the
book, said rights abuses would continue until the laws were strictly enforced.
Ogunba said there was impunity because the laws were not
working.
“We will begin to take ourselves seriously when we do away with
impunity,” he said, praising the author for the work.
Dr Okei-Odumakin showed clips of how women were being
dehumanised, calling for more advocacy on women and children’s rights
protection.
She said of the book: “The actual instances of this abuse –
individual, group, corporate, national and international extents – are
documented. The legal perspective is even more painstakingly delivered.”
Dr Okei-Odumaki said the book is also futuristic in the seeds of
curiousity it sows in the reader.
“The chapter on sexual politics and democracy, I find intriguing
in several ways because of the scourge of multi-dimensional denials captured in
the chapter.
“The denial is brazen in the North and buried in religion. It is
subtle in the South and buried behind a façade of statutes largely ineffectual
in the face of cultural and political muscle,” she said.
On the book’s approach, she said the author chose the classic
academic style, building up the arguments from several perspectives and backing
them up with references in the same breath.
Dr Olomojobi said his passion for human rights motivated him to
write the book, which highlights legal provisions for rights protection.
He said the book was written to explore women’s’ rights and
identify common areas where they are abused, in terms of customs, traditions,
religion, among others
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