Photo source: Video/Youth Alive Foundation.
The Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 (VAPP Act) was enacted to address gender-based violence and human right abuses in Nigeria, including rape, maiming of spouse, forceful ejection from home, forced isolation, acid bath, and killing. The civil society coalition coordinated by Youth Alive Foundation has been engaging with legislators and government agencies nationally and at state level for the domestication and implementation of this law in four Nigerian states.
The work of Youth Alive Foundation and the project has led to the domestication (the enactment at state level of laws to address sexual and gender-based violence) of the VAPP Act 2015 in the four Nigerian states where the project operates.
The project continues to raise public awareness of and advocate for the implementation of the Act, and specifically for the allocation of a dedicated budget to enable its implementation. Government agencies in all four states have made commitments to collaborate with the coalition and to support the implementation of the law in the four states. Commitments range from the Minister of the Ministry of Women Affairs publicly committing to the federal government’s intention to open mobile courts to the opening of a 30-bed shelter for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in Lagos state.
