A Professor at the Department of Private and Property Law, University of Ilorin, Mahmud Kayode Adebayo, has canvassed the creation of a separate court, which should be given special jurisdiction to entertain cases pertaining to women’s reproductive rights, abuses and violations.
He said that such a court should be given a separate legal and constitutional backing as he noted that the existing Family Court is not functional enough to address issues of obnoxious laws and traditional or cultural practices that dehumanise women like widowhood rites, marital rape, inheritance and ownership of real property.
Prof. Adebayo explained that the specialised court is needed now more than ever before to address the increasing cases of violation of women’s rights.
The erudite Law teacher further called for the inclusion of women’s rights in the nation’s constitution as part of the third generation of rights as he said that it is important for these rights, saying to be enforceable.
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He explained that the implementation of the suggestion would also promote reproductive health rights in our society.
Prof. Adebayo, who is a former Head of the Department of Private and Public Law, also suggested the amendment of Chapter IV of the Constitution on Fundamental Human Rights to be made justiceable.
In the alternative, the don said that a new and separate chapter could be created for these women’s rights in the proposed amendment to the Constitution and tagged ‘Socio Cultural Rights’ and be made enforceable in our courts of law.
The Inaugural Lecturer also suggested that concerted efforts should be made towards educating men and women about the advantages of allowing women to exercise not only their economic rights, but also reproductive rights as this will improve the quality of life of women and their family and by implication the whole nation.
He further suggested that a vigorous awareness campaign should be mounted, saying that this would facilitate the empowerment of women through training or induction course for policy makers and a series of well-designed programmes for staff on gender issues and the use of gender disaggregated data for assessment and reporting.
Prof. Adebayo pointed out that both Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisations should be encouraged to partner among themselves to enable them play a greater role in the critical areas of concern for women’s reproductive health rights. The Inaugural Lecturer explained that the private sector can mobilise abundant human, technical and financial resources like the Women Aid Collative (WACOL), Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), Civil Resources and Documentation Centre (CIRRDOC), Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria (FOMWAN) and the National Council for Women’s Society in Nigeria (NCWS) that are currently doing good work in this direction.
He equally stressed the need for a mandatory legislation on mental health services to protect women against disabilities arising from effect of female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices.
Prof. Adebayo added that women must have free or low-cost access to legal services for them to live a worthy life devoid of oppression and depression. He added that there must be the harmonisation of laws to ensure a realisation of women’s rights.
The renowned academic said that in order to effectively promote, protect, and enforce women’s reproductive health rights, all international legislations and policies on women’s reproductive health should be articulated and harmonised into a single instrument and documented.
The Inaugural Lecturer added that all protocols, declarations, policies, and charters on women’s reproductive health rights; including the right to equality of life, liberty, security of persons, family planning, consent to marry, privacy, protection from discrimination, sexual violence, harmful traditional practices, cruel and inhuman degrading treatment, should be domesticated and implemented in line with Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution.
He also underscored the need to reform and engender the language and substantive contents of the 1999 Constitution, particularly the sections that perpetuate gender discrimination and inequality between man and woman.
He said that the law, which provides for citizenship by registration should be reconsidered as he said that the same constitution provides that a woman lacks the legal ability to confer on her foreign husband the right to be resident within Nigeria.
The Inaugural Lecture, was attended by judges, prominent lawyers, colleagues, students and friends of Prof. Adebayo from far and near.