NGO advocates for more gender sensitivity in police reform laws
An NGO, CLEEN Foundation have advocated for more gender sensitivity in police reforms law stating that findings from it’s research suggested that the policing laws were still very much gender blind.
Mr Salaudeen Hashim, the foundations Programme Director, said that the foundation organised a two-day Citizens’ Engagement on Policing Reforms and Accountability of Justice Sector Actors in eight states under its MacArthur Foundation project to address challenges peculiar to policing reforms.
Hashim said this at a Policy Brief with the theme: “Presentation Of Citizen Engagement on Policing Reform And Accountability of Justice Sector Actors” which held on Friday at CLEEN Foundation Hall, Innocent Chukwuma House, Akinsanya St., Ojodu, Lagos.
He said that there were still provisions within the policing system that did not support some gender responsive plan particularly as it bordered around contemporary needs stating that modern policing required some level of parity and balancing.
“The policing infrastructure has what is called the Gender Desk but again the laws are not in tandem for instance there is a part that provides discriminately provisions and those discriminately positions are areas we are concerned about,” he said.
The director said that there must be political will for any reform to achieve it’s desired result and objectives, saying that the Nigerian government already showed political support in terms of how the reform gender can be achieved.
He, however, said that at the subnational levels, there were series of challenges and setbacks.
“We are hoping that the subnational level government will also help share the vision with the national level to see that they sync and that there is consistency.
“We expect a policing that is modern, respects the right of people, safe guards, protects, guides, and that is not biased or has personal vendetta.
“One that people can actually see and be confident and have trust in as partners in progress towards improving our security system,” Hashim said.
The director said that the challenges of effective policing include lack of equipment, training and most importantly, public trust which he said was the biggest challenge of them all.
“Already there are some kind of attempts from different quarters to improve the confidence of citizen policing and the entire policing infrastructure which has actually been working.
“However, there are tactical level challenges and those challenges are those everyday police officers who interface with the people but don’t share the vision with the strategic level officers.
“This divide and contrast is where the challenges truly lies,” he said.
Hashim said that CLEEN initiative aimed at strengthening the entire policing system and to work with the system in order to improve their mandate of responding to the needs of the citizens.
“There is this concern that access to justice and security is something that is not been informed by human security needs but by regime security.
“So, we are about complementing the effort of the state, particularly the policing institutions to be able to deepen the confidence of the people.
“We also sensitise the public on the role they have to play in supporting the entire process of policing and policing infrastructure because the system is actually owned by the people,” he said.
The director said that one could not achieve adequate human security without taking into consideration the entire pyramid that complements the entire security components and that is the issue of economy security.
“As long as the people still feel very disenfranchised, feel resentment, poor livelihood and are still within the poverty corridor, tendency are there that criminality will be on the rise and will continue to be on the increase,” he said.
According to Hashim, the National Bureau of Statistics states that inflation rate had risen to about 33 percent adding that our per capital income was also been challenged.
“Human Development Index in this country is being undermined and if you put all these indicators together, it shows in clear terms where the president needs to focus and do differently.
“If we can deal with the issue of economy and how to manage it in such a way that people can actually feel safe, tendency is there that the issue of insecurity will be dealt with by 50 percent,” he said.
The director said that insecurity in the country came down to competition for resources and that if the government was able to manage resources to ensure even distribution, it would further lower the level of insecurity.
Hashim also said that if the government ensured some level of participation of the citizens in the security architecture of the country, we would have less level of threats and insecurity.
