Govt, Civil Society Sign Declaration to End Gender Violence
By Nozipho Dlamini

May 7, 2006 -(BuaNews) Government and its civil society partners have set priority actions to be taken, at the minimum, before the 16 Days anti-violence campaign starts on 25 November.

This is part of the "Kopanong Declaration" they signed here on Friday, during a three-day conference on 365 Days of Action to end Gender and Child Related Violence.

The conference followed the introduction last week, of a yearlong campaign to reinforce the fight against gender and child directed violence in the country.

The campaign is meant to enhance the existing 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.

Among the priority actions are to ensure the Sexual Offences and Children's Bills are passed as part of the development of legislation and policy to effectively prevent violence against women and children.

Further, they have committed to an audit of all specialised services including forensic clinic services, one-stop centres and Victim Empowerment Centres to determine what exists and to develop a best practice model.

They will also formulate a policy framework on partnerships between government and NGOs in the provision of shelters and places of safety.

Among others, a strategy will be developed for the management of sexual offences including the establishment of sexual offences courts, with the participation of NGO service providers.

The drafting of a joint, integrated training plan on violence against women and children and a body to co-ordinate this will also be done.

The parties further committed themselves to promoting a holistic approach to eradicate violence against women and children, taking into account the intersection of race, class, location, disability and sexuality among others, and further look at the role of poverty and economic inequality in fuelling this scourge.

A coordinating structure for the National Action Plan will be put in place including a multi-sector task team and a council of deputy ministers chaired by the convenor of the anti-violence campaign Provincial and Local Government Deputy Minister, Nomatyala Hangana.

By June, this structure would have finalised a short-term action plan for the next six months and receive additional inputs for the medium-term action plan by the end of June with a view to adopting the 2007 Action Plan at the end of this year's Sixteen Day campaign on 10 December.

Closing the conference, Ms Hangana urged all stakeholders to harness their differences and work together in achieving set gaols to end gender violence.

She said she would monitor the progress of the coordinating structure and ensure that the campaign went to women in rural municipalities and districts.

"Together we will overcome the struggle against gender based violence," said Ms Hangana.

Special Director on Sexual Offences and Community Affairs at the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) Thoko Majokweni said all participants vowed to eradicate violence against women and children in a targeted and measured way over the coming decade, based on baseline data on sexual offenses, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, among others.

"We have agreed to develop, enact and implement a comprehensive legislative framework that gives effect to the rights of all citizens especially women and children to be free from gender based violence.

"We are also rallying to eliminate secondary victimisation by improving services to survivors of gender violence and ensure that every survivor has access to comprehensive treatment, victim friendly care that is standardised and coordinated between the various service providers," said Adv Majokweni.

Colleen Lowe Morna of Gender Links said the conference was just a tip of an iceberg saying however the worse thing was not making an effort at all.

"The following step from here now is to unpack the declaration and refine the action plan to finality," she said.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200605080908.html