Godwin Onu, PhD
Department or Political Science,
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
Abstract
This article examines the place of gender on human security issues in Africa. It notes that understanding human security is critical to achieving place and social justice. Regrettable, in most African states, the institutional structure to deal with insecurity of women is grossly inadequate. The article identifies and discussed the main factors that have affected human security and women in Africa such as slavery, colonialism globalization, culture, civil wars, natural disaster, et cetera. It recommends that women should move strategically to effect real change within the nation states’ institutional paraphernalia in order to fit into the existing power structure and configuration, with the ultimate aim of achieving equity, justice and fair play in gender relations
Introduction
The issue of security has been of major concern since the construction of the idea of nation-state. Hobbes (1651) was concerned about the state of nature and man’s exposure to critical and brutal deals of fellow men. He talked or a complex situation in which man was world unto man, brutish, nasty and characterized by the rule of the mightier and stronger, From animals to humans survival has been an ultimate goal and none wants to be exterminated. This hobbesian conceptualization, Muthien (2004) argues, epitomizes the neo-realist hypothesis of an international system or anarchy. And this, according to her formed the foundation upon which some classical American neo-realists such as Carr (1939), Morgenthau (1948) and Waltz (1954, 1979) built. Ever since the primitive state of nature was conceived and the follow-up or the neo-realist, conception, the issue of security has become a primary objective of the modern state and dominantly state-centric. This article examines the place of gender on human security issues :in Africa.
Conceptualizing Human Security
There are different conceptions or human security, but, they seem to be lopsided and skewed, thereby, subjecting the phenomenon to a contested terrain. Attention has been focused more on national security leading to setting up or the Police and Armed forces and other operatives ;-::)t just to protect the territorial integrity of state, but also protect lives and property. According to Muthiell (2004), the traditional notion of security in terms of armies, guns and war, emphasizes the state both as the primary actor and level of analysis. But this level of analysis excludes other important actors which according to Muthien (2004), includes individuals and groups (ethnicities, and religious groupings, political and ideological groups, and non-state actors like corporate mercenaries, the transnational corporations and multi-national corporations) Secondly, this conceptualization of security places emphasis on protection from harm for citizen’s within national boundary. Thirdly it focuses on the distinction between private and public sphere. The state security focuses primarily on issues within the public realm. But issues in the private sphere such as job discrimination, exclusion, status of women, motherhood and widowhood practices and marriage customs and traditions that fall within the private realm are hardly considered as matters of national security.Galtung (1996) was credited to have proposed the human security model. This model focuses on environmental security, basic needs, issues of dignity and identity and protection from harm (Muthien, 2004).The renewed emphasis on human security followed the Secretary General’s (UN) call at the 2000 Millennium Summit for a world free of deprivation, want and fear. It was the publication of the commission report that broadened and refocused the discussion of security from that of the state to people. The report touched on the following:
• Protection of human rights
• Economic justice
• Environmental integrity
• Human development
It now sought to establish interconnectedness between the above issues and human security and set out necessary conditions for human security. At the core of human security conceptualization is the individual. The new conceptualization of human security became imperative because security as a concept is too militaristic and state centric and did not go far enough in explaining other issues that touch on the security of the individual in other spheres of life. In this regard such issues as women prostitution, sexual harassment, violence against women, gender discrimination, widowhood practices, property rights, inheritance, child labour and trafficking, rape and health matters, environmental degradation, refuse management, poverty are grossly underplayed and underestimated. According to Muthien, human security could be structural, cultural or personal.
Structural character of human security
• Discrimination based on class, race or gender
• Violence embedded in the very structure of the society Personal
• Verbal or physical attack of one person on another
Cultural violence serves to legitimize the personal and structural violence.
According to Muthien (2004: 3),
Human security paradigm attempts to address critical questions about who is secure, and who not, and whose interests are served. Reactively, it would include the absence of physical violence, or negative peace. But proactively, human security involves establishing mechanisms (policies and structures) that will ensure that individuals and communities enjoy personal, structural and cultural security, in other words positive peace.
Furthermore, gender activists are of the opinion that this bias in the definition of security was because of the conceptualization of the global system of governance dominated by men who ignored women in the process of defining the basic characteristics of nation state (Muthien, 2004). To that extent, the whole idea of security was designed to serve the interest of men. So the UN Commission on Human Security (CHS) has braced up to fill this gap by at least trying to connect, the concept of security to human rights, human development. However the CHS’s report is blamed for still not being gender sensitive.
Reardon (1999) argued that human security could be derived from the fulfillment of four basic conditions:
• That environment can sustain human life
• That our basic needs are met
• That our human dignity, integrity, personal and cultural identities will be respected
• That our protection from avoidable harm is secured, http:/ /engendcr.org.za/ article Engendering. Security, html)
What these definitions served to portray is the non-military or state-centric factors that could constitute security risks or constitutes threats to peace and security especially to women. It also serves to drive home the point that security issues span across physical compartments into other areas of life. It also sends the message that security issues should incorporate gender issues because in the absence of psychological and sociological aspects of security, what we should be talking about is not human security but state centric and militaristic security designed to protect the territorial integrity, guarantee peace and security to life and property, ignoring the internal dynamics that give rise to insecurity.
Gender and human security
The holistic interpretation of human security provides gender activists with a renewed vigor and new level of analysis in gender advocacy. In establishing the linkage between security and gender, the basic issues that touch on women’s lives that have been of implicit concern to women across the world has received renewed emphasis. If there is anything a woman dread most, it is violence. Women generally abhor violent environment, men or even children. In addition, in any violent situation, it is the woman and the child that are most vulnerable. Another major issue that is connected to this is poverty and education. When women suffer any form of violence, they have less access to redress as they arc poorer and less educated.
In many states of the world today politics is rooted in fear and violence. This has more than other factors scared many women from political participation. In which ways has insecurity affected the life of women in some parts of Africa? Though we show here a relatively old data, but, it may serve to show the level of inhumanity perpetrated to women and children across some countries of Africa.
| COUNTRY | CATEGORY | STATISTICS | STATISTICS (Year) |
| Botswana | Rape | 6140990) | 712(1992) |
| Defilement | 42 fl 990) | 49 (1992) | |
| Lesotho | Rape | 888(1994) | |
| Indecent assault | 239(1994) | ||
| Malawi | Rape prosecutions | 600(1993) | |
| Actual Races | 600(1993) | ||
| Mauritius | Violence against women | 7766 (I 994-M id-1996) | |
| Namibia | Rape and attempted Rape | 583(1992) | 741 (1994) |
| South Africa | Rape | 49287(1998) | |
| Tanzania | Rape | 497 H 998) | 736 (1992) |
| Defilement or Child rape | 153(1992) | ||
| Zambia | Rape | 634(1991) | 83U1994) |
| Assault | 12674(1991) | 15038(1992) | |
| Zimbabwe | Rape | 2643(1990) | 3813(1992) |
| Indecent assault | 598 (1990) | 611 (\992) |
In Africa, the society is classified into public and private sphere. Generally women belong to the private sphere and men dominate the public sphere. This classification starts with the basic political unit- the family. In the average African family, this sphere goes with roles. There is strong and almost role distinction in which case the woman is relegated to the backyard and the kitchen. The man dominates the palour. Activities in the house are also classified into strong and weak. Men climb palm trees, women fetch fire wood and men break firewood. In the farm, the man owns yam and has his yam barn, the women owns cocoa-yam and dare not enter the yam barn without the man’s permission. Attempt by women to cross the dividing line is often seriously resisted. For instance, a attempting to be a taxi or bus driver is often resisted. In the schools, a female studying natural science is admired as unique since this area is often dominated by males (this is radically changing). At the micro level of the society, men dominate the political arena. An active female politician is still today seen as a person that lost her moral roots especially, when politics is played in an amoral terrain. It is not really easy for a married woman to enter the public realm in the name of politics. The major channel open to women to cross the dividing line has always been education. MacKinnon (1987), blame this institutionalization of male power on the nature of the state. While this is admissible, we feel that major a point of institutionalization is the culture of Africa. In the south-east part of Nigeria, cola nuts are highly revered. It is used in many circumstances to welcome both spiritual and human visitors. But a woman can only eat the broken cola nuts. She cannot break in any public event. In a similar vein, MacKinnon (1987) felt that this distinction is extended to the issue of security, in which case, national security is concerned with the public domain of which the key part is the economy which must be protected from foreign invasion. This goes to help confine the understanding of security as public issues and militaristic while ignoring the social dimension.
Factors that have affected human security and women in Africa
A number of factors have affected human security and women in Africa. They include:
Slavery:
The evil effect of slavery was well documented by Walter Rodney and others on Africa. Millions of able bodied Africans were carted away like articles of commodity into the plantations of Europe and North America against their desires. In long and excruciating journeys through the seas, many died, jettisoned into the seas and those who survived were converted into human machines in plantations. Slavery did not discriminate between men and women as both appeared to have suffered the same fate.
Colonialism: This characterized by discrimination based on colour and race, economic exploitation and political domination. But the worst case about colonialism was the legacy it left behind. This was most prominent in Africa’s balkanization leading to artificiality of boundaries and accepted by the international community and which bore no relationship with social realities in the ‘Continent. This in many cases was the roots of many boundary wars in Africa.
We have the cases of Ethiopia and their neighbours especially the Eritrea that led to fighting in 1997. Each of these wars has witnessed untold cases of human disaster and in each case, women and children have the worse for it.
Globalization: Although globalization has a lot going for it, it appears to have caught the states of Africa unprepared for its challenges. The injunctions of new public management and redefinition of the role of state and character of governance has had a lot of social cost implications in Africa. These touch on social governance and justice. The redefinition of the acts of governance, that minimized the role of the state, has dominantly affected women, as this has engendered poverty, unemployment, prostitution, child slavery and trafficking. For most developed states of the world, it is a march forward into productive enterprise, because foundations for capitalism were already there. These include, a strong private sector, social welfare system that takes care of the most vulnerable in the society-women, children and old age and culture. For Africa, it is a march into chaos and slip into anarchy. This is because, the social foundations for a full blown capitalism is grossly inadequate.
Structural Adjustment: Globalization is also linked to the injunctions of donor nations, agencies and organizations. These bodies had required African states to restructure their economy, politics and public service. The process of doing this and its consequences has caught Africans in the web of poverty. In a continent where there is strong extended family system, poverty treads a vicious circle. Retrenching a worker from job means retrenching his wife, his children, his dependent father, mother, brothers and sisters. All of them will be exposed to varying level of difficulties constraining them to lay hands on whatever they can to survive. In this type of situation women are worst affected. In that case prostitution becomes attractive to the girls as a means of survival. Boys can take to armed robbery, drugs or finding ways to beat immigration to escape to Europe and North America. Chossudovsky (1999) argued that economic liberalization is contributing to anarchy and civil wars. He traced the anarchy in Rwandan to deep seated economic crisis. According to him, it was the restructuring of the agricultural system that precipitated the population into abject poverty and destitution. To him the Rwanda’s plight highlights the malign impact of neoliberal policies. He disagreed with the contention that ethnic hatred is the primary causes of human atrocity in Rwanda. According to Ihonvbere, J (1995:134-140):
Adjustment has de-legitimized the state thus eroding its tenuous hegemony …
(SAPs) are seen as foreign formulated, foreign inspired and foreign imposed in a grand strategy to re-colonize the continent under the supervision of the IMP and the World Bank.
Anup (2003) argued that many developing nations ale in debt and poverty partly because of the policies of international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. He notes that the nature of structural adjustment has required the poor countries to reduce spending on things like health, education and development, thereby, making debt repayment a priority. We then have a situation where national leaders place the interest of international financial institutions above those of their citizens. Women suffer most in this regard. It is also important to note that the extent of success of realization of the objective of human security and the protection of the vulnerable especially, women, depends on the political will and preparedness of the government of the day to institutionalize policies that protect women and give them equal opportunities in the governance process. Civil Wars: Wars are no respecters of gender. Many African states have at one time or the other been involved in either inter-state or intra-state was in the event of war, both men and women 8S well as children suffer. The report of the UN Secretary General (April, 1998), shows that since 1970, more than 30 wars have been fought in Africa, most of them intra-state in origin. In 1996 14 out of 53 countries in Africa were experiencing armed conflicts that accounted for more than half of all war related deaths, globally.
During these wars rape and sexual torture are systematically used as weapons of war. Psychological trauma, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and reproductive health problems are some of the common features faced by women (UN Economic Commission for Africa, 1999). As agriculture is rural based in Africa, women dominate this sector. War disrupts agricultural activities leading to the collapse of rural agriculture. When this happens women are mostly affected and this crushes the whole social and economic fabric of the society.
Another feature of civil wars in Africa is the involvement of neighboring states in conflict ridden societies. Apart from accommodating refugees, some of these states get deeply involved in such conflicts. This leads to situations where neighbours that could not even cope with their own population are forced by humanitarian needs to accommodate large numbers of fleeing refugees. This stresses the existing infrastructure in the host countries leading to environmental problems. Experience has shown the trauma women face trying to escape with their children both young and old and efforts to feed them. Some die in their hands out of hunger and starvation,. The cases of Nigerian civil war between 1969 to 1970, the Liberian Civil war, the war in Sierra Leone, DRC, Uganda, horn of Africa, Rwanda and more recently Sudan are good examples. Fighting and decline in preventive and curative health care give rise to epidemics, even small pox and bubonic plague ECA, ] 999).
The ECA rightly observed and succinctly explicated the Nigerian situation in the best language. In Nigeria, people have been force from their homes due to ethnic conflict over the past thirty years. The ethno-political conflicts go as far back as the Nigerian-Biafran War from 1967 to 1970, in which an estimated2million people died, with 10 million displaced. More recently, the conflicts centered on environmental pollution and poverty in oil-producing areas: the worsening social situation in Nigeria is also linked to religion. The north of the country is mostly Muslim. There have been major religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians sharia. In addition to all these, Nigeria has the problem of overcrowded urban situation, poor environmental sanitation, unemployment and lack of any form of social security. These add to the problems of human secularity. Religious matters have for some time now been a1 case of central concern especially when they attempt to touch on exercise of freedom and human security. In Ibadan, Nigeria, members of Muslim Youth Association disrupted three secondary schools in a protest against girls not wearing appropriate head coverings. In the process, several people were injured (The US Department of State, 2005).
The Problem in Somali is yet to be fully settled. The present government in exile is still not very comfortable. Since the ousting of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 Somali has degenerated into a stateless society. One can imagine the fate of women and children in this circumstance.
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is too recent to be forgotten. With the elimination of men from the societal landscape, the women had to face the odorous task of coping with child upbringing and taking over the roles of men as heads of households talk less of the orphans. According to EGA, camp lives f()l” women and girls, with their hygiene needs, family nurturing responsibilities and daily household chores, can be very demanding and demeaning.
The sierra Leonean problem started in 1991, when rebels crossed the border from Liberia and took control in the southern and eastern parts of the country. This led to the overthrow of government of President Momoh in 1992. Subsequent events and coups and counter coups led to the election of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in 1996. Kabbah was overthrown by Major Koroma and since May t 997, Sierra Leone did not know peace until recently. The conflict led to extra judicial killings, torture, human rights abuses and large scale migration of refugees and internally displaced persons. Thousands were killed; women were raped in large scale. According the ECA reports, sexual abuses and mutilations reminiscent of the gender based sexual violence in Rwanda were common features. But more disturbing were uncontrolled cases of amputations by matchet of one or both hands, arms, feet, ears, buttocks and one or more fingers; gouging out of one or both eyes, rape, gunshot wounds to the head, limbs, injections with acid and beatings (Human Rights Watch, 1998). These victims were often asked to go and show their injuries to opponents. Women and girls were raped with sticks and in some cases relatives were forced 10 rape their sisters, mothers and daughters. This is contrary to the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1948 and Protocols additional to Geneva Convention that prohibit rape both in international and internal conflicts. Article 34 of the Convention on Rights of the Child further protects children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.
Darfur is an arid region of western Sudan with a population of about 6million. It was absorbed into Sudan by the British in 1922 having been ruled by Britain (Gberie, 2004). According to Gberie (2004), Darfur habour about 30 ethnic groups all of whom are Muslims and have lived there for centuries. It is equally difficult to differentiate the Darfurians on basis of skin colour. This is basically why it has not been possible to establish issues of genocide. The UN estimates about 600 deaths every day, 120,000 in displaced camps in Chad alone (Washington Post, 22nd September, 2004). 70,000 people are known to have died, more than l.5 million homeless, and at least 2.2 million people affected by humanitarian crisis (Catholic Relief organization, 2004). The basic problem in Darfur is over the land and resources. Statistics of average death reveals level of inhuman treatment women and children are undergoing in that region.
The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not been better that what has been experienced or is happening in other parts of war torn areas of African continent. It is the same disaster commentary, stories of woes and tales of man’s inhumanity against man. According Amnesty International, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of women and children have been victims of systematic rape and sexual assault by combatant soldiers. Women and girls have been attacked in their homes. Many have been raped more than once and have suffered various levels of humiliations. In many cases women and girls have been taken as sex slaves to the combatants. Rapes have always been preceded by wounding, torture (including torture of sexual nature) or killing of the victim. Rapes are committed in the public and in the front of family members, including children. Some women are raped next to the corpse of family members (P.I)
According to Amnesty International this grave violation and defilement of women and children is more common in the eastern part of DRC. The resulting chaotic situation has led to a situation where all international conventions and morality are jettisoned overboard. Rape has been used deliberately and strategically to attack the fundamental values of community, to terrorize and humiliate suspected supporters of the enemy group. According to the report, women suffering from injuries or life threatening illness as a result of rape or other forms of violence are denied medical care. Many women are abandoned by their husbands and are left without any form of redress as they continue to live in fear of reprisals if they speak out. The conflict in that country was exacerbated not just by the various interests in Congo but also wide and uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunitions. An expatriate woman psychologist working in the DRC observed that in the DRC, women do everything-they walk miles to fetch water, care for children, cook, clean and cultivate the land (AI, 2004). In that country, women who lost their husbands are considered to be properties of the husband’s family. The disastrous effect of rape is that a young woman who has been raped is unlikely to find a husband. This even constrains a rape victim to officially report such atrocious or event as this in many African societies is seen as a taboo. A woman’s virginity is a means of obtaining dowry for the family. In DRC, literacy among women is lower than those of men. Women are encouraged to stay at home to look after their family and access to education is limited. 44% of women as opposed to 22% of men have no income, 46% as opposed to 17.5% of men has no education and since education is not free, many families cannot afford it. Of 12million children of school age, more than 6 million do not go to school (AI, 2004).
All these atrocities committed by African soldiers are contrary to the article 3 of Geneva Convention which states that:
Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex or wealth, or any other similar criteria. (Human Rights watch, p.3)
It bans violence to life and person, in particular, murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture. It also prohibits taking hostages or outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.
Culture
In many parts of Africa, men are seen as having the right to discipline their wives and children. Tradition imposes” duty on them, dictates the nature and the type of air that should breathed in their households. The average African family is authoritarian and patriarchal. Even women often view certain amount of physical abuse as justified under certain conditions. In a survey of Egyptian women it was found that 80% of the women said that beatings of women were common and often justified, particularly if the women refused to have sex with her partner. In a similar report from Ghana, close to half of the women and 43% of men said that a man was justified in beating his wife if she used a family planning method without his expressed consent (UNFPA, 2003). Other cases that lead to abuse of women and beating of women include, not obeying the husband, talking back, refusing sex, not having food ready on time, failing to care for the children or home, questioning the man about money or girlfriends or going somewhere without his permission (UNFPA, 2003). There are also other cultural issues to infringe on gender security. This concerns the issue of widowhood practices and property inheritance.
Circumcising women has been for ages part of African culture. This has been condemned by women groups because it leads to genital mutilation. The UNFP A reported that 28 countries in Africa practice female genital mutilation ranging from 5% in Democratic Republic of Congo to 98% in Somalia. The whole idea is to control female sexuality and preservation of virginity of young girls until marriage. In most Christian dominated communities in the South East of Nigeria, circumstantiation is seen as a part of religious rites and keeping a covenant with God. Genital mutilation is abhorred by women groups because it could lead to various genital disorders and infertility.
In the northern part of Nigeria, the Islamic penal code permits husbands to chastise their wives as long as it does not result in ‘grievous harm1 (which means, loss of sight, hearing, power of speech, facial disfigurement, or other life threatening injuries). The US Department of State (2005), reports that abuse of women in Nigeria occur in 20% of adult relationships and in more traditional areas of the countries, courts and police are often reluctant to intervene to protect women who accuse their husbands if the level of abuse did not exceed the customary norms in the areas. Studies by the World Health organization and UN development systems reveal that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) rate is approximately 60% among the nation’s female population. The issue of FGM is backed up by cultural and religious believe that those uncircumcised women are promiscuous, unclean and unsuitable for marriage, physically undesirable, and were potential health risks to themselves and their children, especially during childbirth (UNDS 2005). Unfortunately, there are no federal laws banning this practice in Nigeria.
In parts of the northern Nigeria, Purdah is part of the culture. Married women are constrained in the Purdah and not to be seen. Many customary practices did not recognize women’s rights to inherit properties of her husband. Widows face various levels of inhuman treatment and discrimination. Most widows in the Eastern part of Nigeria are confined for up to one year, required to shave their hairs and dress in black. In Delta State of Nigeria, a woman (Gladys Keshi) who was accused of having a hand in her husband’s sickness was compelled to walk naked in the streets. In the northern part of Nigeria, Sharia law has never shown a smiling face to women. Her photograph while performing the ritual was carried in the front page of a national daily (Women’s Rights Watch Nigeria, 2003).
In September, 2000, Bariya Magazu, a teenage girl was convicted for premarital sex in Zamfara State and sentenced to 180 lashes. On January 19, 2001 she was lashed 100 times in spite of the fact that her case was still pending in an appeal court. In 2001, an Islamic court sentenced Ms Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu to death by stoning after being found guilty of pre-marital sex. The case of Amina Lawai from Katsina State of Northern Nigeria attracted international attention when she was sentenced to death by stoning. She was later freed by an appeal court. In 2002, WRW reported a case where some Christian nurses were sacked from their jobs because they refused to wear sharia compliant uniforms. In most of the Southern and Eastern African countries, having sexual relations with virgins or post-menopause women make the males believe that they are immune from HIV/AIDS. They equally believe that such will cure them if they already have it or that they will be protected from injury during combat or will help them gain promotion (See Al report, 2004). Sexual assault against women has also ethnic dimension. In most African states, it is used as a reprisal against other ethnic groups. During the Nigerian civil war, there were reports of many female students of Igbo origin that were forced to leper colony to be raped by leprosy patients (Onu, 2002). In some places in the DRC, there were reports of inter-ethnic violence extending to sexual violence (Amnesty International 2004). Some also see rape as spoil of war. In the DRC, thousands of girls were listed as soldiers against their wish as either combatants or wives of soldiers.
Over all consequences of war and violence on Women
Women groups have expressed various levels of concern over the non incorporation of gender issues in security definition of African states (Randriamaro, 2000). Equally relevant is the humiliation women have confronted over the years based on their sex. According to the United Nations Development Fund [or women (2002:1):
Women’s bodies have become a battleground over which opposing forces struggle … Women are raped as a way to humiliate male relatives, who are often forced to watch the assault. In societies where ethnicity is inherited through the male line, ‘enemy’ women are raped and forced to bear children. Women are kidnapped and used as sexual slaves to service troops, as well as to cook for them and carry their loads from camp to camp. They are purposefully infected with HIV/AIDS, a slow and painful murder.
The United Nations population Fund (UNFPA) reported that at least one in every three women in Africa has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way usually by an intimate partner or family member. In addition, there are cases of rape, sexual abuse and genital mutilation (UNIFPA, 2003). In its state of World Population Report 2000, it notes that rape, domestic violence, ‘honour’, killings and trafficking in women exacts a heavy toll on mental and physical health.
In Africa, many rapes go unreported because of the stigma and trauma associated with them and lack of sympathetic treatment from legal systems. In addition, women are always courageous enough to engage legal battles on sex issues and even when they are willing, they lack the resources to prosecute such cases.
UNFPA reported that a study conducted ill Zaria, a city ill the Northern part of Nigeria in which it was found out that 16 percent of hospital patients with sexually transmitted diseases were under the age or 5. It equally found that in Zimbabwe, 900 children under the age of 12 had been treated for sexually transmitted diseases in 1990 alone. These cases could lead to gynecological disorders.
Conclusion
It is important to note that understanding human security is critical to achieving peace and social justice. It is therefore important to root gender concept into human security definition and thinking. In most African states, the institutional structures to deal with insecurity of women are grossly inadequate. Women should also move strategically to effect real change within the nation states’ institutional paraphernalia in order to fit into the existing power structure and configuration to reflect the concerns of equity, justice and fair play in gender relations. There is also need for strengthening the legal system and tighten the hold on the people that benefit from insecurity.
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