... GBV alarm bells

In Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region, an alarming rise in gender-based violence (GBV), especially against women and girls, has sounded a clarion call.

GBV is tearing apart the lives of women and girls, hindering development and stifling progress.

In the mountainous landscapes of /esotho, over 86 per cent of Basotho women and girls have experienced GBV at one point or another in their lives.

More than one-third (36 per cent) of Zambian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 years.

One in five women and girls (20 per cent) suffer sexual abuse before the age of 18, and 39 per cent are married before the age of 18 according to Zambia Statistics Agency, 2019.

Meanwhile, to protect women and girls, Zambia has domesticated international and regional conventions on women’s rights in national laws and instruments such as the Anti-Human Trafficking Act (2008), the Anti-Gender Based Violence Act (2011), the National Gender Policy (2014), and its National Plan of Action.

In Zimbabwe, about one in three women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about one in four women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.

Response

In the context of Eswatini, civil society groups and other stakeholders wrote a joint letter to the prime minister (PM), requesting that GBV be declared a national disaster as that would catalyse a unified national response to comprehensively address the issues around it.

They mentioned that there remained severe gaps within the GBV response system due to inadequate resources and capacity and most of the responsible structures are overwhelmed by the current levels of cases they attended.

They mentioned in the letter that the -udiciary was a case in point The Manzini Magistrates Courts had 1 324 cases in two years, where only two per cent of them were finalised by acquittal or withdrawal and most alarming, 52 per cent of the cases were pending.

In an effort to reduce GBV, UNFPA works with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, sister UN agencies and civil society towards increasing availability and utilisation of GBV services by survivors as well as reducing tolerance for GBV in communities.