00:00Every year on June 19, the world comes together to take a stand against a silent but devastating weapon of war, sexual violence in conflict.
00:12This day is a stark reminder of thousands of women, girls, and even men who have been abused, silenced, and scarred in the midst of war and insecurity.
00:31Right here in Nigeria, the reality is deeply concerning.
00:36Data from 2022 shows a disturbing increase in reports of sexual violence committed by armed groups, security forces, and other actors in conflict zones.
00:51According to the United Nations Secretary General's 2021 report, 601 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were recorded, involving 326 girls and 275 women.
01:09A staggering 80% of these cases were rape, and 5% involved sexual slavery.
01:19And these are just the reported cases.
01:23Many more survivors suffer in silence, afraid of shame, retaliation, or simply not being believed.
01:32These acts don't just damage individuals, they destroy families and pass deep emotional scars from one generation to the next.
01:44That is why this year's theme is so urgent and powerful.
01:49Breaking the cycle, healing the scars, addressing the intergenerational effect of conflict-related sexual violence.
01:59It's not just a call to help survivors recover, it's a plea to prevent those horrors from being repeated in the lives of their children, their communities, and future generations.
02:15Today, we raise our voices in unity for justice, protection, and healing.
02:23We join the global call to end sexual violence and conflict for good.
02:30Now, to help us dig deep on how we can collectively respond to sexual violence and conflict, as someone on the front lines of advocacy,
02:39it is Mr. Emmanuel Etting, Executive Director, Advocate for Health and Rights of Women and Youth Initiative.
02:46Welcome.
02:47Thank you for having me.
02:48Good to have you.
02:49Timitayo.
02:50Timitayo.
02:50Yes.
02:52Timitayo.
02:53Okay, so to start with, sexual violence and conflict isn't just a distant issue, it's peculiar here in Nigeria.
03:01And the question is, why do we think this form of violence continues, it is used as a weapon in times of crisis and also conflict?
03:13Why is that?
03:14Okay, starting from the issue of sexual violence.
03:16Sexual violence, just like the name implies, is a violation of someone's human rights, right?
03:23And when you go from there, you begin to see that it becomes like a weapon, you know, for people, especially during crisis.
03:32And it's against the law globally, you know, for people to use sexual violence as a weapon.
03:40Because, I mean, take, for instance, with the things going on in Nigeria, let's bring it back home.
03:45You go to Burnway State and, you know, before now, we heard about the Bring Back Our Girls issue.
03:52And these issues have been something in the front burner, which we really need to look into because people have seen that violence, especially sexual violence, it's a weapon that affects people, not just the victim, but their families, you know, and their children.
04:09So, imagine having children from sexual abuse, you know, imagine the trauma that comes with that.
04:17Imagine all of those experiences, living with that, even for the community, it's really a lot, you know.
04:24So, it's something that even as a country, we need to begin to look into these issues.
04:28Right.
04:29Okay.
04:30Now, let's look at the statistics from UN, right?
04:32Now, you know, sexual violence is a traumatic experience, you know, and I would always tell people, due to the work that we do, because I can have a sexual violence experience.
04:59Now, you wouldn't expect me to come out immediately to speak up.
05:01People speak up when they begin to find that opportunity, when they are able to speak up, which is why we need advocates to be able to speak up for people that can speak up.
05:14Because sexual violence is like a traumatic experience.
05:19You have people experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, whereby they are stuck to the abusers and they find that as, you know, that is the kind of love that they know, right?
05:31So, you need people to speak for these people, which is why we do the work that we do at Adherit, to ensure that we are able to, you know, advocate for things like this and create that awareness.
05:41And because it affects mental health, you know, you know, government needs to begin to look into how they can begin to create, you know, solutions around mental health for cases like this.
05:56So, for instance, you're not just looking at the economic issues, you're also looking at the health challenges that comes with sexual violence, you know, things like HIV and AIDS, you know, sexually transmitted diseases that also would come with that.
06:12And the economic implications of even affording care for things like this, you know, so it's really a long loop, you know, when you look at all of this, it takes a lot.
06:23Because really, if you look at the community itself, there's even stigma that comes with when people begin to hear that, okay, there was a communal crash and you were a victim of rape and all of that, you know.
06:36And even communities have certain laws that will ostracize you from the community.
06:42And that in itself is a whole deep issue that we need to begin to look into.
06:48I'm actually going to ask, because, you know, you spoke about mental health.
06:51Unfortunately, this month is also centered around mental health.
06:56Do you think that governments should actually look into establishing centers that where people can actually go and have therapy?
07:03Oh, yes, I agree with that. Trauma-informed centers, whereby, you know, because when people look at mental health, it's like people think it's a one-size-fits-all situation.
07:11But you need to sit down one-on-one and begin to understand the peculiarities of these cases so you're able to put a solution.
07:19Not just saying, everybody, we have mental health issues and it's like a general umbrella.
07:23The mental health issues that emanate from, you know, from things like what we're talking about, from the trauma, from the experiences from sexual violence during conflicts, right?
07:35There are mental health experiences people go through when, you know, maybe for lack of education, for lack of funding, you know, for different issues.
07:43So we begin to, we need to narrow it down and that is only where we can find a solution to these things by looking at the peculiarities.
07:52Okay, where is this coming from?
07:54And we need to have trauma-informed centers across the country where people can even just go in and even begin to speak to someone because that is where the healing starts from.
08:03When you're able to even open up and safe spaces, right?
08:07We don't have safe spaces across the country where people go without stigma, without, you know, blame and all of that.
08:13You can just air your mind.
08:14You don't need to begin to say, okay, she was wearing a shirt dress.
08:17You were at the wrong place at, you know, at the wrong time and all of those issues.
08:22No, let's stop the blaming.
08:24Let's begin to look into how we can begin to support survivors.
08:28That is the way people can speak up and talk about these issues because we need, we need the stories of survivors to empower the next generation.
08:37You know, for them to be able to know how best to avoid all of these issues we're talking about today.
08:42Okay, as an advocate, who's actually done this over time and then, I mean, your work is actually out there.
08:48What are the processes for a victim to actually heal, if not 100%, at least 70%?
08:55Now, healing is a process, right?
08:58Just like you said, 70%.
08:59Nobody can determine when someone gets healed.
09:03The only person that can determine that is a survivor that can come and say, oh, I'm over this now.
09:08I think I want to speak about this.
09:11And now we start from creating safe spaces.
09:13Like what we do at Adheris, we organize programs that, you know, allow women to just come and share their stories.
09:18Because you need to just sit in that room and listen to these stories and begin to put yourself in their shoes and understand why they took certain actions and why this happened.
09:28And why all of these things happened, right?
09:31If you're able to connect the dots, we'll be able to begin to provide solutions.
09:35Because you don't just go in and try to say, okay, I want to solve this problem.
09:39Yes, that is intention.
09:41But then you need to listen to the problems.
09:44And you understand that every problem is different from the other.
09:48I mean, there's a story of, you know, an organization going into a community that didn't have water because they thought that, I mean, they saw that women would go far distances, you know, to fetch water, you know, which was far from their home.
10:04This was them trying to provide a solution to the problem.
10:07But they brought Borho just to their doorstep, you know.
10:11And when they launched, they did a big launching, the Borho started working, they realized the next day, the women were still going to the stream to fetch water.
10:21And they now went into the situation to be like, you guys didn't have water, we're going to the stream, we brought it to your doorstep.
10:28Why are you still going to the stream?
10:30And you walk for one hour.
10:32The women now said, you know what, that is a time we only, that one hour was our safe space.
10:38When we were able to escape from our husbands that were beating us, were abusing us, you know, that was the time we were able to gather ourselves around the stream to talk about our problems and encourage ourselves.
10:51You know, we need to begin to move away from just throwing solutions to communities, to problems.
10:57We begin to need to begin to look into client-informed solutions, right?
11:03Whereby, it's the community that is telling you, this is our problem, and you allow them to put a solution to it.
11:09That way, we'll be able to solve the problems that we have, especially when it has to do with, you know, sexual violence.
11:15All right, so let's look at this year's theme.
11:17It says, breaking the cycle, healing the scars.
11:20In practical terms, how can we begin to heal the deep emotional wounds and stop the traumas from affecting future generations?
11:28I mean, it's a long walk, but I would say that it starts from, you know, just even understanding what the problem is, right?
11:38I mean, we have lots of survivors in Nigeria, for instance.
11:43We need to begin to listen to their stories and adopt the stories into different models where we can take them to schools, you know, for them to begin to.
11:54Because it's about the next generation, right?
11:56What are we doing now that we can empower the next generation to think differently, to be better people, you know?
12:02And it starts from when we are able to collaboratively bring survivors, stakeholders, everybody to the table and begin to perfect solutions.
12:11For us at Adheri, I mean, we recently launched a policy on integrating art and culture and ending gender-based violence in Nigeria.
12:18You know, policies like these are things that government can begin to take.
12:21Because for us, we're looking at, I mean, we have various, you know, art tools.
12:27You know, when you're looking at visual art, morals, you're looking at music, all forms of art.
12:32How can we begin to use these things that young people are drawn to, to begin to inform and empower them?
12:39You understand?
12:39We need to look at simple tools.
12:41Sometimes we think about these things and we see them as very gigantic things, you know, that we should do.
12:46But it starts from the grassroots.
12:48Let us even begin to look at our daily things, the things around us, to begin to prove our solutions to the problem.
12:53All right.
12:53So for survivors watching this program right now, what message of hope or support would you share with them?
13:01I would say for survivors, I mean, you're out there.
13:05We see you.
13:06We hear you.
13:07And we believe your story.
13:09I would want you to know that you're not alone.
13:12Everybody has a story.
13:13Everybody has gone through one form of abuse or the other.
13:16It may not be sexual, you know, but then I want you to know that we see you, we believe you, and we can't wait for you to become what you always want to be.
13:28But then I would encourage you to know that you're not alone.
13:32Your story can change the world, you know, so brace up yourself, come out, share your story, but then go through the healing process.
13:42It's a process.
13:43You come out on the other side of the end of the tunnel.
13:46Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Emmanuel Etim, for your insight.
13:50And then we are glad for the work your team and you, I mean, putting out there.
13:56We really appreciate and also appreciate your time here.
13:58And as we commemorate today, remember that healing, the healing begins from taking accountability, action, and also being aware.
