Abstract

Violence against women is a worldwide malaise, eating deep into the fabric of society. It has become common to see women violated in different aspects of life by their male counterparts, be it their fathers, brothers, husbands or for that matter total strangers. Unfortunately women bear the brunt of a lot of violence in our society and silently cover them up so as to avoid stigmatization or protect their families. In recent times in Nigeria, there have been several cases of violence against women and, most of these cases are kept silent despite their pervasiveness. Issues like sexual harassment, trafficking in women and girls, sex selection, early marriage, female genital mutilation etc are fast becoming epidemics plaguing Nigeria as it is the case globally. This situation is unabatting globally and has elicited public outcry leading to the intervention of the United Nations General Assembly as well as member states coming out with several treaties, laws and policies on women in a bid to protecting the woman from the dehumanizing violation of human rights. This work among other issues examined violence against women and its diverse ramifications and exposed the fact that it is a human rights violation that must be stopped. It also assessed some of the legal regimes relating to violence and found that these regimes have not had their desired impact due to various reasons in Nigeria including the fact that the causes of violence are embedded in unequal power relations between men and women hinged on patriarchal leanings of society and made some recommendations geared at combating the challenge of violence against women.

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