Reflection from Global Insitute for Human Rights Certificate Program

Cover page of the policy memo to the representative of the United Nations – Antonio Cisneros on the Human Rights Legal Education for Women/Girls

As a human rights lawyer interested in Women’s rights and policy development, I am aware of the cultural inequalities, low compliance to laws, lack of accountability by different actors that have hindered the equal participation of women in the society and enhanced the perpetration of violence against women. My experience at the Global Human Rights Institute has inspired my change-making journey towards conducting further research on the protection of the rights of women titled “SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENDER INEQUALITY: AN APPRAISAL OF THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN FOR A PEACEFUL AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETY IN AFRICA”. As we may know, Sexual violence against women is a human rights violation that affects the economic, social, and political welfare of every country. It is peculiar to all women globally regardless of their race, class, religion, marital status, and age whether in times of peace or conflict. My current research seeks to examine sexual violence suffered by women in peace and conflict situations across Africa to ensure the protection of the rights of women using Nigeria as a focus. The bedrock of my research is  linked with the Security Council Resolution UNSCR 2467 and 2493 which recognized, that sexual violence in a conflict occurs on a continuum of interrelated and recurring forms of violence against women and girls

Three takeaways that stood out to me for my career were based on the importance of accountability as the basics of human rights, the ability to use the law as a call for social change at different just like Mandela to demand for what is concrete, and the importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach for the promotion of human rights (whether in research, legal scholarship or advocacy).

Finally, I am encouraged as a human rights lawyer and scholar through the wise words of :

1. Justice Sisi Khampepe – the journey I have travelled has taught me that you must never let adverse cicumstances define your destiny.
2. Phumzile Mlambo – Ngcuka,  Nelson Mandela dedicated his life trying too find the goodness in people that could change the way they are, unlike a lamb in your body, racism is not something that is attached to us. We can actually unlearn it although it is hard.
3. Prof. Rangnita de Silva de Awila – Women’s bodies are contested spaces where collisions of human rights takes place.
4. Dr. Monde Muyangwa – It should  not take conflict for women to be acknowledged in Politics.
5. The african Proverb “UBUNTU” – I am because we are.

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