The European Union has commended Government for adopting a culture of honesty and hard work towards the elimination of gender-based violence by providing correct statistics which are essential in the fight against the scourge.
Speaking at a dialogue session organised by the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus in commemoration of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Jobst von Kirchmann this week said the Government should be commended for its transparency and dedication.
This year’s National commemorations are being held under the theme: “All lives matter; end gender-based violence now!”
The event was attended by stakeholders, including officials from the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, representatives of people living with disabilities, and senior and junior Members of Parliament.
“I arrived here a couple of weeks ago and every time I listen to a speech of a minister in an event and most recently when we celebrated the children’s day with my colleagues from the Unicef and the Vice President everybody was talking about child marriages,” Mr Von Kirchmann said.
“Everybody was talking about child marriages, girls getting pregnant at the age of 9 years. So that is alarming and if you look at the latest statistics in Zimbabwe it shows that 42 percent of women aged 15 to 49 years have experienced physical and or sexual violence at some point in their lives.
“I would also like to thank the Government for that transparency because you see it’s very simple to say everything is fine, but to say and for me to hear to the speeches and to say, no it’s actually not fine there is a problem, requires courage.”
UNDP Resident Representative Ms Mia Seppo said accurate statistics were essential in the fight against gender-based violence.
“Data is crucial in lobbying, for the strengthening of the criminal justice system and to raise awareness and in breaking the circle of silence which has led to losses of valuable lives of women and girls,” she said.
More data was still needed to track the perpetrators who are convicted to ensure that justice is delivered.
Speaking at the same event, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Dr Sithembiso Nyoni said Government remained committed to ending gender-based violence and efforts were being put in place to protect those at risk.
“To date Government has established seven one-stop centres and safe shelters which have gone a long way in ensuring that survivors get services for gender-based violence and also provide protection services to those at risk of violence from their partners,” she said.
The goal was to have a one-stop centre in each province and in each district to ensure that survivors are closer to places where they can get services.
Despite initiatives that were in place to curb gender-based violence, it was disheartening that reports of gender-based violence and harmful practices were increasing.
“Statistics from the multiple indicator cluster survey shows that 33 percent of girls are married before the age of 18 and this translates to one in every three girls, a figure which is too high to be ignored,” said Dr Nyoni.
“We cannot develop as a nation if we continue to have such high figures of our women becoming victims of violence perpetrated by a male figure close to them.”
At policy level the Government has been lobbying for the enactment of legislation that will provide for a mandatory minimum sentence for rape.
The enactment of the Marriage Act , the launch of the Public Service Sexual Harassment Policy and the National Strategy on Women in Decision Making are also some of the measures that are being taken by the Government.
Addressing various stakeholders at the same event, Senate president Mabel Chinomona said through collective efforts gender-based violence could be eliminated.
“I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to play their part and role in ending violence against women and girls. Let us all together, men and women, boys and girls, show support and solidarity to end the scourge of gender-based violence in our communities,” she said.
Given the serious rise in gender-based violence around the world, this year’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence was more important than ever before.
Child President Mr Unathi Nyoni challenged both men and women to look at cases of gender-based violence from an equal footing rather than a biased perspective.
“Our first hurdle today is to accept the fact that gender-based violence does not discriminate. Any person of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender can be a victim or perpetrator of gender-based violence,” he said.
“Our second and perhaps the most important hurdle is accepting that our efforts to end gender-based violence must be gender neutral, meaning that they should recognise that no particular gender is a definite perpetrator of gender-based violence.” – The Herald
