{"id":59966,"date":"2015-12-16T00:12:07","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T22:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/south-africas-still-long-walk-to-free-women-from-the-shackles-of-violence-un-expert-calls-for-change\/"},"modified":"2015-12-16T00:12:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T22:12:07","slug":"south-africas-still-long-walk-to-free-women-from-the-shackles-of-violence-un-expert-calls-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-africas-still-long-walk-to-free-women-from-the-shackles-of-violence-un-expert-calls-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s still long walk to free women from the shackles of violence\u201d \u2013 UN expert calls for change"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 15, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — <\/span><\/p>\n

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Dubravka \u0160imonovi\u0107, today urged the Government of South Africa to strengthen the fight against gender-based violence through awareness and education at all levels of society. \u201cI have heard on many occasions that violence against women is normalized in South Africa,\u201d she warned stressing the need for change.
\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe violence inherited from the apartheid still resonate profoundly in today\u2019s South African society dominated by deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes towards the role of women in society which makes violence against women and children an \u00a0almost accepted social phenomenon\u201d Ms. \u0160imonovi\u0107 said after her first official visit* to the country from 4 to 11 December.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite an arsenal of progressive laws and policies to deal with gender-based violence put very ably in place, there has been little implementation, hence impact and gender-based violence continue to be pervasive and at the level of systematic women\u2019 human rights violation,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The independent expert said that different forms of manifestation of violence against women and girls take place in the country, among which femicides or gender-related killing of women, domestic violence, rapes, gang-rapes which in their most extreme and forms have lethal consequences, and other forms of sexual violence.<\/p>\n

In relation to the high number of femicides, she encouraged South Africa to establish a \u201cfemicide\u201d or \u201cgender-relating killings\u201d watch through which the number of such killings would be released every year. Such data and information about each case, carefully analysed, is needed to identify any failure of protection in the response\u2019s chain to gender-based violence and would bolster improving and developing further preventive measures. She also called for the conduct of risk assessment and crisis management in the context of domestic violence and application of protection orders that should guarantee immediate protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was reported to me that, mostly in some rural areas, the practice of Ukuthwala continues,\u201d she said warning that girls as young as eight can be forced into marriage through their abduction, kidnapping, assault and rape associated with such harmful practice. \u201cIt needs to be clearly stated that such practice violates the constitutional rights to dignity, freedom and security of the person.\u201d Other harmful practices include virginity testing and accusations of witchcraft.<\/p>\n

The human rights expert said that there is insufficient specialized training for all front-line actors involved in the responses to gender-based violence, namely the police, prosecution office, and courts. She called for better awareness of the police\u2019s positive duties to protect women in domestic partnerships who are victims of abuses, to manage the reporting and investigation of sexual offenses and to refer those reporting sexual offenses to medical services.
\u00a0
Ms. \u0160imonovi\u0107 cautioned about hearings conducted in a non-victim friendly manner, the presence of perpetrators and the lack of security of the victim, all of which leads to secondary traumatization. Victims\u2019 friendly rooms at police stations, while mandated by the Sexual Offenses Act, are lacking.<\/p>\n

The expert also highlighted gender stereotyping by magistrates leading to leniency towards the perpetrator and need for gender sensitive education for judiciary. She expressed concern that there is no established risk assessment and crisis management and protection orders are not immediately available and when issued are often not adequately followed up by police, for lack of human or financial resources.<\/p>\n

Ms. \u0160imonovi\u0107 cautioned about hearings conducted in a non-victim friendly manner, the presence of perpetrators and the lack of security of the victim, all of which leads to secondary traumatization. She also highlighted gender stereotyping by magistrates leading to leniency towards the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

During its eight-day visit, the expert met with Government officials at the federal and provincial levels, representatives of civil society organizations, academics, including in the townships of Diepsloot and Khayelitsha. She also visited a women\u2019s prison, met with numerous women\u2019s survivor of gender-based violence.<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur will present a comprehensive report with her conclusions and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in 2016.<\/p>\n

(*) Check the full end-of-mission statement: http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/NewsEvents\/Pages\/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16877LangID=E<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 15, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Dubravka \u0160imonovi\u0107, today urged the Government of South Africa to strengthen the fight against gender-based violence through awareness and education at all levels of society. \u201cI have heard on many occasions that violence against women is normalized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-59966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}