Shaking things up: Monitoring the institutions for victims of sexual violence

Shukumisa Monitoring One of the campaigns falling under 16 Days of Activism is Shukumisa, a campaign aiming to "shake things up" by focussing on sexual violence and the experiences of victims. Part of the campaign is to monitor the facilities which victims of sexual violence may use, such a police stations, courts and hospitals. Armed with my monitoring pack, I set out yesterday to take on the institutions which should be providing the highest quality of care and support to victims of sexual violence. My experiences were extremely mixed. At one police station I was initially refused any answers, and only when I stated that I had a right to know would anyone speak to me. The individual who I eventually spoke to had no idea what the protocol for dealing with a rape victim was, and reported that he would take her to the nearest hospital… hardly in line with the protocol outlined in the Victims Act. At another station there was a Victim Empowerment Centre, run by volunteers, but no one at the station had a key to the room, not even the officer in charge of dealing with rape cases. This is a prime example of resources being available but not being used to their full potential. The other side of the coin was the inspiring set-up of one particular station where a forthcoming and friendly Constable showed me to the Trauma room, which catered for both adults and children, with a variety of toys available, all legislation pertaining to violence against women and children on hand, and even special post-sexual violence kits, which included clean underwear, washing utilities and other useful items. If only all the police stations were as organised and committed to the plight of victims of abuse. At the court, after a polite introduction, explaining what my intentions were, I asked the control prosecutor whether he would mind answering a few questions. The abrupt answer I received was “yes”, and that was that. Eventually I managed to elicit some information from a women wearing an “HIV AIDS” T-shirt, sitting at a desk covered in pamphlets and condoms. Apparently both the witness waiting room and the CCTV room were in ‘secret’ locations. Harmless as I am, I can understand their reluctance to show me to the locations, however this was a major setback in my research. All in all the experience was extremely enlightening for a person whose only experience with police stations prior to this was the paying of fines.