WINDHOEK — Forty percent (40) of men and 35 percent of women in Namibia believe that it is okay for a wife to be slapped by her partner for reasons such as burning the food, going out ‘without permission’ or refusing to have sex, according to the 2013 Namibia Demographic Health Survey.
UNICEF’s Representative in Namibia, Micaela Marques de Sousa, made this astounding revelation at the opening of the Gender Justice in Namibia Colloquium in Windhoek on Wednesday.
De Sousa acknowledged the Namibian government’s significant progress in putting appropriate legislation to curb violence, such as ratifying the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), SADC Protocol on Gender Equality, the Combating of Rape Act (Act 8 of 2000), the Domestic Violence Act (Act 4 of 2003 and the Child Care and Protection Bill, among others. However, more needs to be done to change the situation, she said.
She said that the Colloquium was building on the Namibian government’s high level commitment and the workshop would help to understand the complex inter-linkages between violence against children and gender-based violence.
“Violence against women and children is often invisible,” she said, adding that these acts often take place at home, in schools, online and through mobile phones and is passed on from generation to generation.
The UNICEF Representative said that while women are less likely to be direct perpetrators of violence, they can indirectly promote violence by imposing negative and constricting gender stereotypes on children, like telling boys not to cry or using corporal punishment more on them.
“For boys, acculturating to aggressive masculine standards of behaviour in early development puts them at risk of violence in their later years,” she emphasised.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Erastus Negonga, reaffirmed his ministry’s commitment to strengthening community based prevention and response to violence against women and children, saying that it was and welcomed the colloquium as a great platform to provide an opportunity to review the current situation.
Negonga said that he was surprised by a recent study conducted by the South African Research Council (2013) that about 17 percent of Namibian women face attacks, while Namibian Police statistics for 2003-2011 indicated that approximately 385 children were raped each year with the majority being girls.
“This forum has come at the right time, where the Second National Conference on Gender Based Violence Report was released and all stockholders should put more effort and apply applicable knowledge on the implementation of these recommendations,” he said.
Raul Fuentes Milani, Head of the European Union Delegation to Namibia, said that violence against women and children is perhaps the most tolerated of human rights violations.
“It knows no geographical boundaries, no age limit, no distinction and no racial differences,” he said.
Milani said that in order to address gender violence, we need a systematic coordination of all relevant ministries and levels of public administration, including health, education, and social welfare, justice and law enforcement.
“The EU seeks to achieve gender equality as a fundamental right and also as an imperative for economic growth and social cohesion,” he pointed out, saying that violence was, however, still under-reported as only about a third of women who are physically of sexually abused by their partners in the EU contact the authorities.
The Gender Justice in Namibia Colloquium three-day workshop is collaboration between the Namibian government and UNICEF and a first of its kind in Namibia.