A Non Governmental Organization, Center for the Right to Health has organized a road show to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism, a worldwide campaign to challenge violence against women and girls.

Members of the organization,  physically challenged persons and activists,  accompanied by some officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps on Thursday marched from Government House Roundabout through Cherubim Junction to Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri  to press home their demand for equal rights for all citizens.

They displayed placards with various inscriptions such as “Stop the stereotypes against women and girls now”, “Let us unite against gender based violence”, “Violence happens to everyone”, “Take action, prevent and respond to gender based violence in Imo State”.

Speaking shortly after the exercise, the Programme Director, Center for the Right to Health, Mr. Bede Eziefule said the essence was to draw the attention of Imo people on the need to act against all forms of discrimination against women and girls and people with disability.

He said women’s rights are human rights which include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, stressing that any act aimed at dehumanizing them is illegal and must be  stopped.

“All sorts of rape, incest, domestic violence, battering, harassment, people should say NO to it and defend women’s right as human right”, He submitted.

Eziefule informed that the organization’s focus was to prevent gender based violence against women with disabilities and added that members had engaged cultural and religious gatekeepers as part of efforts towards realising the goal.

President, National Association of Disabled Women, Imo State chapter, Blessing Korie  identified accessibility and social inclusiveness as major problem of the physically challenged and encouraged members to report when their rights are trampled upon.

An activist, Mrs. Collete Bennett stressed the need for equal rights for persons with disability and reminded those who abuse the physically challenged of the provisions of the Violence Against Persons and Prohibition (VAPP) Law that had stipulated penalties on any form of abuse.

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