Chiamaka Ihekwoaba

Gender-Based Violence in Gabon

Inequality has been embedded in our society and has become the new normal. There is a nexus between inequality and violence, and women pay the greater price for this unwelcome tango. The widely agreed form of inequality is the scale of income differences between the rich and poor. However, it has been discovered that the higher the inequality in society, the higher the tendency to increase violence, especially gender-based violence.

Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of their gender. Both sexes experience gender-based violence; most victims are women and girls. 21 centuries after, there are still about 80 million women and girls who are still victims of gender-based violence.

Sadly, should the trend continue, one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime. The report shows that 28 percent of female folk worldwide have experienced physical abuse, 7percent se7 percent, 62.6 percent child marriage, and 25.3 percent are victims of female genital mutilation.

The disheartening data shows that one in two women has experienced sexual harassment, has been raped one in 20 and most of all, women are still on the long road to attaining economic parity and social equality.

GBV is like a tree with long roots spread across different areas. According to the President of the Observatory of Women's Rights and Gender Equality (ODEFPA), Honorine Félicité Nzet Biteghe, the first root cause of gender-based violence is culture and socio-cultural stereotypes, which are a barrier to the development of women and girls. Women’s ignorance of their rights is another important cause of the prevalence of GBV in society.

Honorine Nzet, during her service as Gabon's Minister for Family Social Affairs and the Advancement of Women, initiated a bill amending the second part of Gabon's Civil Code.

Article 692 provides that a widow shall be deprived of her right to usufruct if she remarries, without compelling grounds, into a family other than that of her deceased spouse.

Honorine Nzet revealed to that till date, Gabonese customs and traditions sometimes deny married women the right to land. Get noted that Gabonese law does not recognize this inequality; however, it still exists.

Violence based on gender is not location bound as it is perpetrated in every part of the world. It is not unique to Africa. However, it is more brutal on the continent than elsewhere. In Africa, GBV exists under the guise of traditions; it is fed and nourished by culture and fattened by the culture of silence and fear of stigmatization.

“As a member of the Panel of the Wise of the African Union representing Central Africa, I have observed that the geographical variables that are the source of violence against women come from the basic education received by communities, which is rooted in the customs and traditions passed on from generation to generation.

Customs are practically legally binding and strongly oppose the advancement of women as development actors and full citizens. This explains why we need to drive a shift in mentalities,” Nzet said to me.

GBV undermines the health, security, dignity and psychology of its victims. Many live with the trauma all their lives and are afraid to speak up for fear of stigmatization. Aside from that, many women who have spoken up are hardly believed, giving rise to perpetrator impunity.

In Gabon, the Penal Code states that anyone who commits an assault against another individual is punishable by correctional penalties that can be converted into criminal penalties depending on their severity. However, many of the assaults go unreported.

Violence against women and girls is one of the world's most prevalent human rights violations. Some of the forms of GBV include gendercide, dowry death, rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, reproductive coercion, prenatal sex selection, obstetric violence, and female genital mutilation, among others.

In many African countries, the search for male children precedes the love for female children. Though abortion is largely illegal, gendercide and coerced abortion occur as frequently as family planning. Globally, the legality of abortion is still under debate, with many saying it is a form of gender-based violence.

However, Professor Laura A. McCloskey discovered that though logistic regressions revealed that no single form of gender-based abuse predicted abortion, multiple forms of abuse increased the odds of having an abortion.

Currently, abortion is illegal in Gabon and when we asked Honorine Nzet her thoughts on the nexus between abortion and violence against women. She stated that “Gabon’s logo is a mother breastfeeding her child. Family is at the heart of our country’s values, and there has been some progress in protecting children's and women’s rights in that context. 

As such, Act 1/2000 instituted family planning services and repealed the need for a prescription to access certain types of contraception legally. Access to birth control has empowered Gabonese women to take control of their family lives, hopefully limiting cases of violence linked to abortion.”

The cost of GBV is great to both the individuals/families of survivors and the economy. The World Bank stated this violence against women is estimated to cost some countries up to 3.7 percent of their GDP, more than double what most governments spend on education.

According to the Commonwealth, Seychelles alone loses over $65 million yearly to violence against women, which is equivalent to 1.2 percent of local GDP in direct costs and 4.6 percent of GDP in overall economic cost.

Globally, as many as 38 percent of women are murdered by their intimate partner, reducing the global ranking of some countries. When it comes to Gabon, Nzet noted that “it is difficult to assess the economic cost of gender-based violence, but a variety of actors suffer the consequence of gender-based violence (GBV) nonetheless.”

“For the State, economic cost can also be calculated through the medical coverage provided by the health insurance fund (CNAMGS). For NGOs, the cost can be determined in terms of first care emergency packages, legal assistance, and psychological support provided by structures like ODEFPA and Cri de Femme, a member of ODEFPA,” she added.

Globally, the fight against GBV has already begun but to succeed in the fight, sensitization has to start early from childhood, and women need to be adequately empowered.

To do that, Nzet believes that “women's empowerment entails that women must know, understand and exercise their rights and be responsible for their well-being. 

The society in which they live must also understand that they are not sub-citizens and that they should occupy their rightful place at all levels and in all spheres of society, following their skills.”

Education and awareness programmes can help reduce and eventually eliminate violence against girls on the African continent and, hopefully, the world at large.