WUNRN
|
Nigeria - Abducted Schoolgirls - Bring Back
Our Girls - Campaign Update |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau,
said the girls would not be released until its prisoners are freed [AFP] |
|
|
________________________________________________________________________
Equality Now http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6208/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17461 http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6208/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17461 Websites include specific suggested Campaign follow up ACTIONS.
NIGERIA - BRING BACK OUR GIRLS - CAMPAIGN UPDATE - EQUALITY NOW
8 OCTOBER 2014
UPDATE: In July, the Nigerian Ministry of the Interior responded to our
letter calling for increased efforts to rescue the abducted Chibok school
girls and to eradicate terrorism (read letter here). However, despite declarations of behind
the scenes efforts, international collaboration, and increased security
measures, six months have passed and not one girl has been rescued. To date,
219 girls are still missing, and the 57 girls who escaped, did so on their
own. In fact, Boko Haram has abducted additional girls, women and boys since
April. We have taken the
issue up using various United Nations and African Commission human rights
procedures and continue to keep the discussion going on our networks. On 13
October – following the 11 October international recognition of the Day of
the Girl Child -- Equality Now, the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights
Coalition (SOAWR) and FEMNET, will hold a solidarity
vigil to mark six months
since the girls’ abduction. The vigil will be held in Nairobi, Kenya,
bringing together civil society, expert guest speakers and artists. In
addition, 11-18 October will be Global Week of Action. We are not giving up on the girls and
we hope you will do the same. Please renew the call to hold the governments
accountable and to keep global attention on the issue. Thank you for your
support. It’s been months since heavily armed attackers stormed the
Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria and abducted nearly 300
girls during the night of 14-15 April. The majority of the schoolgirls have
not been seen or heard from since and are feared to have been sold into
“marriages” and sexual slavery in Nigeria, and potentially, in neighboring
Cameroon and Chad. The militant group, Boko Haram, whose name roughly
translates to “Western education is a sin,” reportedly claimed responsibility, stating, “Western education should
end. Girls, you should go and get married…I will sell them in the
marketplace.” In a further alarming development, early in the week of 4 May,
suspected Boko Haram gunmen abducted at least eight more girls – some
possibly as young as eight years old – from a village in Borno State,
Nigeria. On 6 May, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that
such human rights violations – selling the abducted girls as slaves – could
constitute “crimes against humanity.” However, efforts to rescue the
girls have fallen desperately short. Please join Equality Now and our Nigerian partners, Women's
Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, Echoes of Women in Africa,
Women for Justice and Peace, and Alliances for Africa, in urgently calling on
the Government of Nigeria to: ·
Take immediate action
to locate and rescue the girls and provide them with support services upon
their return ·
Prosecute those
responsible for the girls’ abduction and exploitation ·
Take steps to protect
schools from attacks so that they are safe places to learn ·
Immediately institute,
in consultation with women’s rights organizations, measures to protect the
safety and human rights of women and girls throughout Nigeria, which are further
endangered by the volatile political situation in the conflict areas Also call on the Governments of Cameroon and Chad to swiftly
determine whether the girls were transported into their countries and to
assist in their rescue.
|
