Abstract

This article considers the utility of a specific treaty on violence against women (VAW) in Africa in line with relevant binding regional frameworks in the Inter-American and European human rights systems. It situates the discussion on VAW within a human rights analysis, applying a critical lens to existing normative frameworks and monitoring mechanisms. The article offers a comparative perspective through an overview of the legally binding provisions and implementing mechanisms in three human rights systems, the African, European and Inter-American systems. It is argued that while the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) has provisions on the elimination of VAW, the Protocol’s weaknesses invite us to consider a specific VAW treaty for Africa, as an opportunity for strengthening the regional human rights system.

Abstract

Gender-based violence against refugees has received increasing attention over the last two decades. However, the tendency worldwide, as well as in South Africa, has been to focus on ‘truly horrific’ and ‘culturally grotesque’ acts while ignoring the more invisible forms of gender-based violence. The tendency to focus on the conditions of the country of origin, rather than individual cases, can hinder women’s access to asylum on the ground of intimate partner violence if their country of origin is hailed as having a more progressive approach to women’s rights. This article seeks to bring the more invisible harm to the fore and will focus on intimate partner violence affecting female refugees in their countries of origin and in their host country, South Africa. We make recommendations for South Africa to recognise intimate partner violence as a valid asylum claim, to tailor effective services for female refugees who are victims of intimate partner violence in South Africa, and to fulfil its international and domestic legal obligations to refugee women by adopting a transformative reparations framework.

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an epidemic that is often viewed through the singular lens of heterosexuality. The discourse about IPV and mechanisms to combat IPV are heteronormative in nature and erase the experiences of queer persons in relationships and the manner in which violence manifests in these relationships. This paper explores third party responses to IPV in lesbian relationships. This violence is informed by heteropatriarchial attitudes and is re-enacted by third party responders, which has the effect of silencing survivors of same-sex IPV. The conceptualisation of the second closet emerges from this phenomenon.

For lesbians, keeping secrets about abuse in our relationships is also linked to homophobia and heterosexism: it is still risky for some of us to be out, and it can be dangerous to reveal abuse within an already oppressive context.

Abstract

Violence against women and children remains a pervasive human rights violation in South Africa, despite laws and policies aimed at preventing violence and advocating for the protection of the rights and dignity of women. The impact of violence on South African society and on women’s mental health and quality of life is significantly encountered in mental health contexts where many women present for psychiatric and psychological treatment. This discursive article presents a mental health practitioner’s perspective and highlights experiences of working therapeutically with female victim-survivors of violence in a psychiatric hospital in the Western Cape. I argue for greater intersectoral collaboration and responsive partnerships between mental health services, non-governmental organisations, legal centres, the criminal justice system and civil society. Further recommendations are made to challenge discriminatory practices and attitudes, and to strengthen violence prevention initiatives to enable the empowerment and safety of women in South African society.