THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the National Assembly to consider and enact the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill, as well as other bills supporting affirmative action.
Tony Ojukwu, Executive Secretary of the NHRC, announced this in a statement on the occasion of the 2023 International Women’s Day (IWD).
According to him, the legislation’ passage will minimize gender-based violations and legally equip women to address injustices, particularly Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), which has continued to rear its ugly head in society.
He stated that it is high time for the subject of gender equality and gender inclusiveness to define how our society is governed, because gender discrimination is often accompanied by a lot of denials.
“However, women’s prudence in resource management and developmental skills cannot be overemphasized, therefore they unarguably remain the pillars of our future, given the enabling environment and opportunity; women have the potential to turn things around to make the world great and a better place for everyone to live in,” he stated.
He said the theme of this year’s commemoration, ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’ is very apt considering the proven capacity of women in diverse fields of life such as medicine, pharmacy, digital technology, engineering and literature just to mention a few.
“Nigerian women and other women elsewhere have on different occasions proven that they can perform excellently in drawing policies and making decisions that could turnaround the society; therefore they should be encouraged to unleash their best potentials for the development of the entire society”, the Executive Secretary added.
