Gender Justice Barometer Issue 11

The National Action Plan (NAP) Task Team comprising senior government officials, UNICEF and civil society met on the 23^rd – 24^th January 2007 to put final touches to the Draft National Action Plan to end gender violence. The meeting took place ahead of the NAP launch scheduled for the 8^th of March 2007 as set out in the Kopanong Declaration.  A NAP Communication Strategy will also be launched on the same day.

 

Delegates at the NAP task team meeting set up a planning committee for the launch. Representatives of government, UN agencies, civil society, traditional leaders, private sector and Faith-based organisations from all provinces will attend the launch at a venue to be advised.

 

The Draft Plan will go through to stakeholders – civil society, FBOs, UN agencies, and government departments – for comment before being finalised. The final document will be sent to print and launched by the presidency.

 

A NAP Communication Strategy has been crafted, spearheaded by the Government Information and Communications Department (GCIS) in consultation with NAP stakeholders.  A preliminary presentation and briefing on the strategy will be done the 5^th of February for further comment from stakeholders before finalisation.

 

The meeting also identified priority actions within the Plan that will be implemented in the short term, that within 2007. The plan is for 2007 to 2009.

 

For the latest draft and your comments please contact: bminyuku@npa.gov.za or click here to view. Please submit your comments by the 15^th of February 2007.

 

 

The Media Watch Organisation (MWO-GEMSA) has kept the momentum going by continuing to hold consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders on the way forward regarding the Mauritius Draft National Action Plan (NAP) to end gender violence.

 

MWO-GEMSA President, Loga Virahsawmy and Vice President Dr. Ameenah Sorefan held a meeting with the Minister of Women in the presence of Mr. Avinash Appadoo, Gender Desk Officer at the Ministry of Women Rights. They also met with the Minister of Human Rights and presented the Check List for Action to him. The Check List was drawn up at the 365 Days of Action workshop held last year which saw drafting of the NAP.

 

The two ministers pledged to present a cabinet memo make sure all government departments are aware of this National Action Plan.

 

MWO is working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Human Rights and the UNDP. Two members attended a three day residential workshop on a National Action Plan on Human Rights. This was followed by a half day workshop to add views that could not be taken up at the first workshop. MWO then took the opportunity to present the check list for change most of it will be incorporated in the Human Rights National Action Plan. A letter to the Minister of Human Rights was sent informing him of the developments..

 

South Africa will be making in roads in localising the National Action Plan to end gender violence as some provincial local government departments take on the initiative.

 

Building on the process begun during 2006 16 days campaign, at a conference to extend 16 days to 365 days of Action, SALGA Gauteng will partner Gender Links and GEMSA in coming up with local action plans to end gender violence in its 14 municipalities between 2007 and 2008. A planning meeting will be held on the 5^th of February 2007 to come up with a work plan together with a review session of the 2006 conference.

 

Meanwhile SALGA North West is planning to hold a provincial 365 day conference early in the year. The aim is to replicate the process. Details on the conference are yet to be announced.

 

 

 

Lesotho’s government has approved a policy to care for its growing population of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The policy comes at a time when, irrespective of gender, orphaned children are exposed to various forms of abuse and exploitation, including … prostitution, sexual abuse, child labour, early marriage, maltreatment and neglect by caretakers, poor health and inability to access and afford essential services," said Itumeleng Kimane, a senior lecturer at the National University of Lesotho, who complied a report on OVC for the government in 2004.Read the full report

Source: IRIN/PlusNews

 

Women, men and children who have suffered gender violence are smiling as we enter 2007 while would be perpetrators may have to think twice. This is because Mauritian legislation which has a bearing on gender and power relations is being overhauled.

 

The Mauritian government is drafting a Sexual Offences Bill as well as an Equal Opportunity Bill. Further, the Domestic Violence Act and Sexual Harassment Act are being reviewed.

 

A Family Court is being established and PEP is being administered in hospitals This comes at a time when secondary housing for victims and survivors of gender violence is being discussed by Government while a modern and big shelter is being opened soon.

 

A half day workshop will be held on a date to be announced to review and give inputs to these amendments as well as the new legislation.

 

International child traffickers may be using Mozambique’s weak adoption laws to target orphaned children, to the growing concern of the government, said a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior. The use of the adoption process to gain access to disadvantaged children is the latest form of child trafficking to hit the Southern African country, according to Lurdes Mabunda, head of the ministry’s Department of Women and Children. Read the full report

Source: IRIN/PlusNews

 

The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) is in the process of re-structuring and examining the Strategic Plan for 2007-2011. Various sector meetings have taken place and organisations have begun to make inputs and submissions into the plan. However, in recognition of the difficulties that SANAC sectors have experienced in consulting on the National Strategic Plan (NSP) the Department of Health will fund sector summits, to take place up until mid-February 2007. The purpose of the individual summits is to allow each sector to discuss the NSP and to make recommendations.

 

A working group has been established to plan the women’s sector summit will take place from 8-9 March 2007 in Johannesburg. Click here for more information

 

Women should desist from pulling each other down and strive for unity to enable them to work together and attain development in various economic spheres, the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Cde Oppah Muchinguri, has said.

 

Cde Muchinguri was speaking during the launch of the national gender policy implementation strategy and work plan in Harare.

Read full article

Source: The Herald

 

 

A planning meeting for the SADC Gender and Development Protocol will take place back to back with the Media Partners Consultation early February.

 

A training workshop of a core team of regional facilitators and trainers will follow. It is scheduled for 19 – 22 March, 2007. The facilitators will go back to their countries and hold capacity building workshops for local NGOs in lobbying and advocacy strategies.

 

Members of the Southern Africa Protocol Alliance’s campaign which gained momentum in 2005 are working with the SADC Gender Unit to elevate the SADC Gender and Development Declaration elevated into a Protocol. The campaign seeks to have the Protocol adopted at the 2007 Heads of State summit. For more information about the meeting campaign contact: susan@genderlinks.org.za.

 

 

In a country long sickened by the frighteningly high level of sexual violence, one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa is closing the gap between the rhetoric of gender equality and the reality on the ground. Read the full article

Source: Irin/PlusNews

 

The recent election and appointment of a new government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a landmark event in the country’s post-war future. However, away from the capital Kinshasa, and away from the media focus, the war has not yet ended for thousands of Congolese children – especially former girl soldiers. Read full article

 

Gender Links will be launching a new publication:

Date: 22 March 2007

 

This research is a follow up to GL’s groundbreaking study “Ringing up the Changes: Gender in Southern African Politics” which identified local government as one of the most neglected yet important areas of focus in gender and governance discourse in the region. It seeks to explore the causes and the implications of the disparity that exists in Southern Africa between women’s representation in local government from virtually no representation in some countries to close to equal representation in others and the different approaches that have been used to rectify this imbalance. For more information please contact: susan@genderlinks.org.za.

 

 

A recent radio talk show discussed some of the terms used to describe gay and lesbian people, and, rightfully so, invited a prominent gay presenter to talk about what he thought of the way that media represented non-heterosexual communities. Unfortunately, this type of balanced media coverage of non-heterosexual communities is rare. Read full article

The world over, gender activists celebrated the appointment of Tanzania’s Foreign Minister, Asha Rose Migiro as United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary General by the newly appointed Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. She becomes the third person and second woman, after Canadian born Louise Fréchette, to be appointed to the position.