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Open Letter to Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari to #BringBackOurGirls
Dear President Muhammadu
Buhari,
As feminist, women and girls
rights, gender and social justice institutions and organizations, we wish to
congratulate you on your election and recent inauguration to the highest office
in Nigeria. Your election is a testament that your vision was shared by much of
the electorate as they hope for a new beginning in Nigeria. We acknowledge that
your priorities include ensuring safety and security for your citizens,
recalling your words: I pledge myself and the government to the rule of
law, in which none shall be so above the law that they are not subject to its
dictates, and none shall be so below it that they are not availed of its
protection.
We appeal to you today to show
your leadership to the world and most importantly to your Nigerian citizens by
ensuring that the hundreds of Chibok girls who are still at the mercy of Boko
Haram, one year on are immediately rescued and reunited with their families.
Your Excellency, we acknowledge
the Nigerian military has done much to counter Boko Haram presence, as
witnessed by the recent liberation of 800 women and girls from Sambisa forest
which we celebrate. Yet, we are horrified by reports from Amnesty that since
2014, over 2,000 women and girls have been abducted. We are also extremely
concerned about emerging reports indicating that the abducted Chibok girls have
been forcibly married, and are being used as sex slaves, human shields and
suicide bombers. The families and communities of the Chibok girls as well as
countless others who have witnessed the abduction of their women and girls have
lived in trauma and distress each day that their daughters have been away from
home, but continue to believe, despite the time that has lapsed, that they will
return.
Now that you have taken
office, we urge that you:
1. Take immediate action to
locate and rescue the abducted girls;
2. Provide psychosocial support
services for the survivors, their families and their communities;
3. Rebuild damaged schools,
ensure public spaces are safe spaces and reaffirm the girls' rights to safety,
security and education as a process of restoring their dignity;
4. Prosecute those responsible
for the girls' abduction and exploitation and put in place measures to hold
military forces accountable for human rights violations;
5. In consultation with
citizens, civil society and womens rights organizations institute measures and
reforms to protect the safety and human rights of women and girls throughout
Nigeria, which are further endangered by the volatile political situation in
conflict areas;
6. Guarantee the safety and
security of the communities who have been internally displaced, as a result of
the ongoing conflict in the region.
May your tenure be one in which
Boko Haram, and any other fundamentalist and extremist groups who wreak havoc,
be challenged and overcome by the collective will and commitment to ensure the
safety and security of every citizen a tenure that values the lives of its
girls and boys in the North as it does in the South, its rich as its poor, its
majority groups as its minority groups. We look forward to an Administration
under your leadership which will act, listen and respond swiftly and
effectively to the needs of its citizens.
We stand ready to work with you and your administration to make sure that the demands of countless citizens, both locally and globally, for the safe return of the girls is met and that such a travesty will never be repeated.
..
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