• New system to provide visibility on investigations, prosecutions, convictions
Michael Olugbode in Abuja
Nigeria has deployed a new nationwide reporting platform designed to track cases of violence against women from the point of reporting through investigation, prosecution and conviction, in a move aimed at strengthening accountability and access to justice for survivors.
The platform was developed by the Federal Ministry of Justice with support from the EU Support to End Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (ESGBV) Programme in Nigeria and implemented by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
It is expected to address persistent gaps in case documentation, data coordination, and justice-sector monitoring.
The initiative was unveiled on Monday in Abuja during the Deployment and Operationalisation of the Violence Against Women (VAW) Reporting Platform and National Validation and Capacity-Building Workshop on the VAW Reporting System.
The organisers described the platform as Nigeria’s first standardised justice-sector VAW reporting system, designed to consolidate information on cases from different states into a central database.
Speaking at the event, GBV Policy and Strategy Development Specialist, ESGBV Programme, International IDEA, Melissa Omene, said the initiative was developed to address one of the major weaknesses in Nigeria’s response to violence against women — the fragmentation of data and inadequate tracking of cases after they are reported.
Omene said, “Reporting violence is only the beginning of a survivor’s journey. What happens after reporting matters just as much as the reporting itself.”
She disclosed that an assessment involving 112 respondents from 32 institutions across the Federal Capital Territory, Benue, Kaduna and Oyo states identified gaps in data coordination, investigations, evidence management and justice-sector monitoring.
Omene said the National GBV Dashboard recorded 4,449 GBV cases in the first half of 2023, taking the nationwide number recorded since the dashboard was launched in 2020 to more than 19,000.
The figures, she said, highlighted the need for a stronger system capable of following cases beyond the initial reporting stage.
Head of the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Unit at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Yewande Gbola-Awopetu, said the success of the new platform would depend significantly on the accuracy and consistency of information supplied by designated desk officers.
Gbola-Awopetu said, “Every field you complete, every case status you update, and every follow-up you log becomes part of the evidence base.”
She disclosed that the National Human Rights Commission had recorded more than 33,000 SGBV cases between January and May, while National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) documented more than 3,000 cases of violence against women in the FCT.
She said the figures reinforced the need for improved documentation and tracking of cases to determine what happens after victims report violations.
National Consultant for the VAW Reporting System at International IDEA, Agharinma Ehiedu, said the platform would bring together information previously scattered across state-level systems into a single national database.
According to him, justice institutions would be able to access national data without having to contact individual states separately.
“You can know how many offenders you have, how many cases have been convicted, and those that are pending trial across the country,” Ehiedu said.
He added that the platform would also enable members of the public to report violations, with cases subsequently routed to relevant state desk officers.
He described the system as providing “full visibility of what is happening” to violence-against-women cases across the country.
Violence against women remains a major human rights, public health and justice challenge in Nigeria. It includes physical, sexual and psychological violence, domestic violence, harmful practices, trafficking and other forms of abuse.
One of the longstanding difficulties in addressing the problem has been the absence of a consistently integrated system for documenting cases and tracking their progression through Nigeria’s multiple justice and response institutions.
Cases can pass through the police, health facilities, social welfare structures, human rights institutions, prosecutors and courts, while information is often held separately by each institution. This can make it difficult to establish how many reported cases resulted in investigation, prosecution or conviction.
The problem is compounded by under-reporting. Survivors may choose not to report incidents because of stigma, fear of retaliation, economic dependence, lack of confidence in institutions or concerns about the consequences of pursuing cases.
Nigeria has also established legal and institutional mechanisms aimed at addressing gender-based violence. The Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) 2015 criminalises a range of harmful acts, including physical, sexual and psychological violence, while providing protections and remedies for victims and survivors.
Its implementation, however, depends substantially on effective enforcement and, in states where necessary domestication has been done.
The country’s response also involves institutions including the Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Police Force, National Human Rights Commission, NAPTIP, health and social welfare agencies, state ministries and civil society organisations.
The new VAW reporting platform is expected to complement the existing structures by providing a mechanism for capturing and following cases across the justice chain.
Beyond statistics, the system could allow authorities to identify bottlenecks – including cases delayed at investigation or prosecution stages – and improve evidence-based planning and accountability.
For survivors, the ultimate test will be whether reported cases receive timely attention and whether perpetrators are brought to justice.
The ESGBV Programme and International IDEA said the deployment was intended to move Nigeria’s response beyond simply recording incidents towards ensuring that cases remain visible until appropriate justice outcomes were achieved.