The Ambassador of France to Nigeria, Blatmann Emmanuelle, has expressed need for women with disabilities who suffer gender-based violence to get more support from the government, religious institutions and cooperate organizations.

The Ambassador spoke recently at the Breakfast Debate organized by the French Embassy in collaboration with the French Institute, with a theme, ‘Is Gender-based Violence Still an Exclusively Female Problem?

The event was the Embassy’s way of joining the 16-day activism against gender-based violence declared by the United Nations.

Blatmann the slow pace policy implementation of France and Nigeria government in eliminating gender-based violence.

She added that the fight against gender-based violence among people with disabilities, women, children and even men is a fight that involves everyone.

“This breakfast debate is organized within the framework of the 16-day activism against gender-based violence that we contribute every year. There is so much that needs to be done for people with disabilities. The most vulnerable people to gender-based violence are indeed women, children and people with disabilities because they may not have the capacity to speak out.

“All the events we have organized across nine cities have shown that education is key to cultural change but also, political will at the highest level. Nigeria and France are the same in having laws and legal frameworks that are not implemented. For France, it is very recent that President Macron has decided since he was elected that gender equality will be one of his priorities.

“Violence against women is not only physical, it can be psychological, emotional, and financial, and it also happens in the professional world. In France, it was enforced with fines, Nigeria can also adopt that. People living with disabilities who suffer from gender-based violence need more support from the government, religious institutions and cooperate organizations. Everyone needs to be involved to win this war.”

Former Chairman, Plateau State Disability Rights Commission, Ms. Brennan Mizim, said the government is making effort to address gender-based violence issues involving people with disabilities but it needs to do more.

According to her, Nigerians need to also complement the efforts of government by changing their attitude toward people with disability.