Gender Discrimination and Sensitivity: Infringement on the Rights of Women in Nigeria

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) defines human beings as persons that are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. In 1948, the UDHR told the world what a person, as a human being, is entitled to. It is now over fifty years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the story of equality of human beings is still being debated or emphasized. Not as it relates to men, but as it relates to women and children especially the female ones.
Historically, women have been subject to so much ill-treatment because of how they have been viewed by different traditions, as being less important than men, socially, economically, politically, culturally and environmentally. Around the world at least one woman in every three has been beaten, coerced into sex, killed or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Every year, violence in the home and the community devastates the lives of millions of women. Violence against women is rooted in a global culture of discrimination which denies women equal rights with men and which legitimizes the appropriation of women's bodies for individual gratification or political ends. Despite the influence of religion, international conventions, protocol and local legislation in preaching the doctrine of equality, the chauvinist stereotypes still find it difficult to move away from their respective cultural practices to accord any serious recognition to women.
The footprint power used over women usually gives men greater power or superiority while women are left disempowered and degenerated as inferior powers. Human beings irrespective of their categories whether as men, women or children should be accorded the same rights and respect.