Violence Against Women

 The submission, made to the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, is in lead up to a hearing on the prevalence of torture in Department of Correctional Services (DCS) facilities. As a form of torture, prison rape is a clear violation of offenders human rights. There are also critical links between sexual abuse and gender inequality and HIV in DCS facilities. This joint submission examines the gendered aspects of sexual violence in correctional centres, how rape shapes offenders understandings of gender and sexuality, and how it fuels a cycle of violence both in and out of prisons. We also underscore the connection between HIV and sexual violence in prisons, and highlight the specific needs of male survivors of sexual assault, who are largely invisible in our society.

There are promising developments which will lay the foundation for the work needed to protect the rights of inmates against sexual abuse. There is a draft policy framework to address the sexual abuse of inmates that is currently pending, and the Correctional Matters Amendment Act, passed in May 2011, contains a provision requiring the assessment of new detainees for vulnerability to sexual abuse. The new National Strategic Plan for HIV, STIs and TB 2012-2016 (NSP) also calls on DCS to enforce laws and policies to prevent sexual abuse of inmates as a strategy to stem the spread of HIV. In addition to adopting these pending documents and enforcing existing laws, Sonke and TAC made recommendations for DCS to do the following:

• Engage with the development of operational plans for the NSP (which calls for prevention of prison rape),
• Integrate training on sexual violence and HIV into DCS training college curricula, and
• Work with other governmental departments and civil society to ensure the provision of appropriate services to offenders

Download: The TAC & Sonke Parliamentary Submission

Last December Women'sNet undertook different activities during the 16 days of activism against gender based violence notably by encouraging members of the public to donate their old cellphone to organisations working with victims of gender based violence. This initiative subscribes to global campaign called Take Back the Tech! supported by the Association for Progressive Communication's Women's Networking Support Program (APC WNSP).

Jac sm Kee of the APC WNSP underlines the successes of this year's campaign:

Take Back the Tech! started in November 2006 with a small but important idea: the increasing availability and reliance on new information technologies was transforming them into a political space, urgently in need of a feminist lens for engagement, understanding and envisioning. Women's contributions to the historical development of internetⁱ technologies were getting lost and forgotten, the reality of violence faced by women and girls all over the world was already seeping into online spaces and was not being given the attention needed.

The gendered culture of science and technology which acts to create hierarchies and alienation in technology use needed to be confronted and dismantled. At the heart of it, we had to take control of technology to define and shape a transformative space and platform, instead of one that becomes another form of structural inequality and discrimination.

On the 17 of February, Women marched on Bree street taxi rank following the harassment 2 young women wearing mini-skirts were victims of at Noord street taxi rank last December. Organised by the ANC Women's League, the march gathered the support of COSATU, Women and Men Against Child Abuse and the Commission for Gender Equality. According to the Sowetan, a group of men followed the 2 women pulling their clothes and groping them. This is not the first incident of this nature in Johannesburg as similar marches were organized in 2008 by the Remmoho Women’s Forum and more recently last  September  a "slut walk" were organized Johannesburg to bring awareness to sexual harassment and violence against women perpetrated un public spaces.

UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the first of its kind to deal specifically with war's impact on women, just had its 10th anniversary. This event and many other achievements have made 2010 a watershed year in advancing the women, peace and security agenda. A Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence was appointed. Four existing UN agencies focusing on gender were merged to create a new gender entity called UN Women. Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, will head the new organization, and the UN hopes that the budget will soon reach $1 billion - double the combined budgets of the four existing agencies. Peacekeepers have developed innovative initiatives, including better communication with local communities, to improve their ability to protect people from violence. Also, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is in the process of developing training exercises for peacekeepers so they can better prevent sexual violence and respond if women have been assaulted.

 

Chairman, chairwoman, chairperson or chair? Housewife or homemaker? What is so controversial about contraception, the word ‘family’ or ‘sex worker’? Does being gender-sensitive in news mean hiding the genders and sexes of people who appear in them? Inter Press Service announces a third edition of “The Gender and Development Glossary” to offer journalists and writers a guide for picking their way through the sometimes tricky terrain of gender, media and development, and the use of gender-related terms and language in media.

 

As part of the historic international campaign “One Day One Struggle” organized by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR), over 20 organizations will hold simultaneous events and public demonstrations on topics like protesting customary practices such as honor killings and FGM/C, overturning discriminatory and life threatening laws like stoning or lashing of women, and calling for LGBT rights, the right to sexuality education and the right to bodily and sexual integrity of all people.

Sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in Colombia by all parties in the country’s longstanding armed conflict, and its main victims are women and girls, states a report recently released by Intermón Oxfam, backing up claims made repeatedly by national and international human rights groups.

CONCERNED and angry women at KwaMashu men’s hostel in KwaZulu- Natal are calling for tougher law enforcement after the rape and killing of a two-year-old girl.

Phumzile Mtetwa from The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project writes about the conclusion of the murder trial of Eudy Simelane a lesbian activist and former Banyana Banyana football player. Simelane was gang raped and robbed in a brutal attack last year, the trial was concluded yesterday in Delmas court, East of Johannesburg. Crime statistics were released on Tuesday 22 September 2009 showing a shocking increase of sexual offences by 10,4 percent with 27 750 rapes commited in six months alone and proving that South Africa is one of the world's most violent societies with fresh crimes.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to investigate an incident in which a disabled Muslim traveler from Pennsylvania was forced to undergo a humiliating search by airport security personnel in Ohio.