NCJ Number
176704
Date Published
1995
Length
139 pages
Annotation
This report examines the incidence of domestic violence and rape against women in South Africa and the government's response to such victims and their victimization.
Abstract
The findings are based on interviews and research conducted in South Africa by Human Rights Watch representatives between January 26 and February 20, 1995, as well as some subsequent interviews and research. The report notes that the new South African government has pledged to ensure women a full and equal role in every aspect of the economy and society. Yet South African women continue to face extraordinarily high levels of violence that prevent them from enjoying the rights they are guaranteed under the new dispensation. Domestic violence and sexual assault are pervasive and are directed almost exclusively against women. South African women's organizations estimate that perhaps as many as one in every three women will be raped and that one in six women is in an abusive domestic relationship. South African women victims of violence continue to face a judicial and police system that routinely denies them redress. Women, regardless of race, complain of indifferent or hostile treatment from the criminal justice system; and black women in particular face lingering racial prejudice in their interactions with the state. Police are often ignorant of the laws that protect women from violence, and, within the courts, judges often discount rape survivors' testimony and give lenient sentences to rapists. The South African government, at the highest policymaking levels, has pledged to address these human rights violations against women and has launched some encouraging initiatives; however, the state response remains sporadic and often discriminatory. Without systematically addressing this gender-based violence, lasting democratic change cannot be achieved. 308 footnotes and appended Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women