Africa-Press – Eswatini. One Billion Rising commits itself to putting pressure on members of Parliament (MPs) to ensure that they push government to declare gender-based violence (GBV) as a national emergency.
This was said by One Billion Rising Director Colani Hlatjwako yesterday at the Eswatini Observer offices.
Members of One Billion Rising visited to the offices to educate the employees about the effects of GBV and how it could be addressed.
Eswatini Observer’s Sabelo Ngwenya, wanted to know why it was hard for government to declare GBV as a national emergency.
Hlatjwako said they understood that government would not just decide to do something and act on it within a short time.
The director added that some of the decisions called for budgets to be allocated before they were executed. She said MPs played a vital role in the country’s policy formulating processes, adding that the legislators were elected by the ordinary people and that made them to be accessible to them.
Hlatjwako said it made sense for them to approach the MPs and lobby them to put pressure on government, so that the GBV could be declared as a national emergency. She said the declaration would help Emaswati in many ways as every ministry and every department would commit to fighting GBV.
She said should every government department commit itself towards fighting GBV, all the other systems in the country would respond and make improvements aimed at eradicating GBV.
Hlatjwako said apart from the legislators, they would also work with many organisations and urge them to also play a role in teaching its members about the dangers of GBV and how it could be eradicated.
embarked
She said the organisations could be businesses, faith-based, developmental and other against others. She said they had embarked on a 2024 campaign under the theme: ‘Rise, be the new world. End, violence against women and children.’ She stated that they started the campaign now in November because they wanted to align it with the 16 days of activism against GBV.
She further thanked Eswatini Observer for giving space to One Billion Rising to highlight what it had been doing in the fight against GBV for the past 10 years.
Other members of One Billion Rising, like Sitakele Maseko, Philisiwe Matsebula and Bonisile Mamba, stated that the media, especially Eswatini Observer, has helped them in ensuring that they became part of the fight against GBV.
They said they were touched by stories that Eswatini Observer continued to publish on GBV, urging the newspaper to continue doing so.
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
