26 Nov 2015

Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, says government recognises the grave impact of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in society and continues to develop targeted interventions for effective elimination and prevention of the pandemic.

Minister Batshu said this when launching 16 Days of Activism Against Violence on Women and Children in Mogoditshane on Wednesday. He said statistics indicated that all was not well especially for young girls who should be at school.

He said it was disheartening to note that children remained exposed to various forms of school related GBVs including sexual abuse. 

He said to this end the ministry in 2012 promulgated domestic violence regulations to facilitate the implementation of Domestic Violence Act of 2008 and had also put in place a national strategy for GBV 2014-2020, a strategy which adopted a comprehensive multi-pronged and multispectral approach for comprehensive response to gender based violence.

“When children’s vulnerabilities and experiences vary across and within countries, school related GBV is a global phenomenon and no school is immune to the attitudes and beliefs within the broader community that promote harmful gender norms and condone acts of gender based violence,” he said.

Mr Batshu said failure to protect children from all forms of violence, including in their school lives, is a violation of their rights, compromising their development and wellbeing which may result in lower academic achievement and economic security, and long term health risk and perpetuates cycles of violence across generations.

The minister said government is alive to fact that elimination of GVB requires concerted effort of all stakeholders including law enforcement, the judiciary, Dikgosi, child protection authorities and civil society organisation in order to promote safe and effective reporting and response.

Mr Batshu highlighted that all members of the society remain obliged to take responsibility in addressing the vulnerability of children en-route to and from school and to not to do so is a heinous violation of human rights and perpetuation of violence.

For his part, USA Ambassador, Mr Earl Miller said the ongoing campaign to red card GBV was to make the community aware of the meaning of gender violence and exploitation primarily of the girl-child and provide practical tools to intervene in such situations.

He said the campaign is to build strong solidarity with communities to combat GBV, by shunning it, identifying it and engaging in constructive conversation about it. Ends