Organization Picks Media-Friendly Approach To Combat Sexual Gender Based Violence

 

By Ruth Samba

While sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) can affect anyone be they male or female, it differs in each system where there is no institutional oppression involved and where they are not reported.

SGBV which is the most pervasive human rights violation, is not inevitable and must be prevented at all levels even amongst intimate sexual partners.

When the entire social structure is designed to reinforce the idea that women most especially are second class citizens, it creates a communal disregard for the exploitation of women.

Their perpetrators are usually intimate sexual partners, family members, neighbors or strangers.

The Hope for a Better Tomorrow (HOBET) foundation has chosen the media - friendly approach to put an end to SGBV.

This was the content of a two-day workshop where SGBV survivors recounted their ordeals.

The workshop was also aimed at training media professionals on the need to use their voices in fighting SGBV through advocacy contents that dignify survivors and expose perpetrators.

According to the Founder of HOBET, Tembeng  Eliane, this is because the media can change beliefs and attitudes of communities through appropriate reporting of SGBV cases using international and regional legal frameworks to stop all forms of SGBV especially against women and girls that continue to occur at alarming rates across the world.

She added that in Cameroon, there has been an increase in sexual violence and assault cases in the North, Northwest and Southwest regions.

It is reported that the main perpetrators are armed separatists, military personnel and civilians.

Additionally women have been the main target during the conflict in Cameroon since 2016.

At the international level, the convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW) is recognized as instrumental in safeguarding women's right to equality and has become the key treaty to protect women from violence, ratified by many nations.

The Maputo protocol has also included economic violence as a form of violence against women.

Together these legal instruments increase the protection standards for women.

Their implementation is backed by international and regional independent monitoring mechanisms.

 Survivors Narrate Ordeal

The first survivor I spoke with is someone who has suffered from sexual violation.

The violator was no other than her elder step brother who at times raped her alongside her friends.

Unfortunately according to her, she didn't know she was being violated but thought her elder brother was punishing her for doing something wrong or that he just hated her. 

She further narrated that: He will sometimes ask my own biological brother to carry such act on me.

This happened continuously for more than three years until one day her mom stumbled on it.

The only thing her mum did was sending her to live with the aunt.

She had however tried telling her mother severally but she never paid any attention.

She even warned me not to jeopardize her second marriage.

She only realized she was being violated by her brother when she was attending a lecture on Gender while at the University.

After overcoming the anger that filled her, depression and anxiety, she is now a survivor.

This other victim of intimate sexual violation had this to say.

“He punched me so hard; I ended up given in"

She explained that since she was living with her partner, there were times he wanted sex and if she tells him she wasn't in the mood, he will batter her up.