SANF 07 No 15
Fighting violence against women will take centre stage as southern Africa commemorates International Women’s Day on 8 March.
This year’s theme – Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women – highlights the critical need to create a social and legal environment that does not tolerate violence against women and girls.
While most societies publicly condemn violence against women and girls, the reality is that it is often tacitly condoned by cultural practices and norms.
Ending tolerance for all forms of violence against women – physical, sexual and psychological – is one of the most important challenges facing the world today.
Trafficking of women and girls is among the challenges that continue to hinder women’s ability to participate fully in society. It is a form of gender violence that is affecting the progress to achieving development goals in southern Africa.
According to the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (the Palermo Protocol), “trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
In southern Africa, the main reasons for trafficking are promises for better jobs, forced labour, sexual exploitation and educational opportunities. Regional and national strategies are needed to curb this form of gender violence.
An audit commissioned by the SADC Gender Unit and SADC Parliamentary Forum in 2005 on the extent to which the provisions of gender equality in regional and international instruments for gender equality have been implemented noted that “new forms of gender violence, such as trafficking, are on the rise”.
Trafficking was highlighted as a new and emerging issue at the 2005 Beijing +10 review in New York. Trafficking in women and girls thus, was one of the 10 resolutions adopted at that meeting.
In southern Africa no country has specific legislation on trafficking of women and children although this is addressed under various laws. It is against this background that the draft SADC Protocol on Gender and Development proposes legislation to prevent trafficking by 2010.
There is however growing acknowledgement of the problem in different laws that are in place in SADC countries and some are using these laws such as Sexual Offences Bills to address issues of trafficking against women and children.
Mozambique is cited as one key source country for women and children trafficked to South Africa according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) 2003 report “Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa”.
Other source countries include Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The scourge of trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in southern Africa continues to pervade the region as police admit that breaking into responsible syndicates is proving difficult, despite intensive efforts by several stakeholders.
While trafficking exists, there is not much information available on the problem as it is a very secretive and hidden activity.
The absence of specific legislation to address trafficking hampers the protection of affected persons and the prosecution of offenders.
In its review of the Sexual Offences Act (yet to be passed by Parliament), the South African Law Commission has dedicated a chapter to trafficking in a section entitled “Sexual Offence: Adult Protection”.
To increase awareness, billboards denouncing trafficking have been put up in major highways of most countries including South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
More regional initiatives on how to address trafficking in women and girls need to be established, including harmonisation of legislation on how to prosecute nationals who have committed crimes in other countries.
International Women’s Day is commemorated on 8 March each year to celebrate the gains women have made over the years and to bring attention to the issues that face women.
