Legal Reform

The National Working Group on Sexual Offences is a working group of civil society organisations working in the field of gender based violence and was established to influence the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill [B50B-2003] for the benefit of women and children. The group worked to protect the rights of women and children, and made submissions to the Bill, created awareness on contents of the Bill and Act. The group now works on awareness raising and implementation issues of the Act.Women'sNet is a member of the Working Group.

The One In Nine Campaign was established in February 2006 at the start of the rape trial of Jacob Zuma, to ensure the expression of solidarity with the woman in that trial as well as other women who speak out about rape and sexual violence. The Medical Research Council (MRC) study on sexual violence (2005) indicated that only one out of every nine rape survivors report the attack to the police. This statistic prompted the name: "One In Nine". Furthermore, statistics indicate that of the cases that do reach the courts, less than 5 % of the rapists are convicted.