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This year’s international theme for the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women is “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Proliferation of Small Arms and their Role in Domestic Violence”. The topic is an important one (the use of firearms in domestic violence) but it’s put in a very dull way – perhaps that’s one of the reasons why this year’s 16 Days just don’t seem to have gotten off the ground in South Africa.
At Tshwaranang we’ve chosen to use the 16 Days to focus on the role of local government in addressing violence against women. We’re bringing communities and ward councillors together during three different town hall meetings convened in central Johannesburg (25 November), Soweto (5 December) and Katlehong (7 December) to ask:
- What programmes do they have in place to address the problem of violence against women? How have they engaged communities in the design and implementation of these programmes?
- What role can local councillors play in ensuring that laws such as the 1998 Domestic Violence Act and the 2007 Sexual Offences Amendment Act are effectively implemented at local level? How do councillors engage with the SAPS and community policing forums (CPFs) around the implementation of these laws?
But this is not all we’ve been busy with . See the articles below:
A consultative dialogue with the Commission for Gender Equality around the criminalisation of consensual underage sex:
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=72815
The outcome of our complaint regarding Mandla Mandela’s comments on ukuthwala:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/11/24/mandela-asked-to-clarify-comments-on-forced-teenage-marriages
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-12-02-when-culture-clashes-with-gender-rights
Tshwaranang has been accepted as an amicus in this matter:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/appeal-on-sex-abuse-conviction-on-hold-1.1166790
An article on the preliminary findings of Tshwaranang’s study about how the print media cover rape:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/12/06/lack-of-coverage-about-rape-study
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