Working against violence against women: How far have we come?

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Pages: 1-26
• Citation: 2020 Acta Juridica 1
• Date: 14 September 2020
• Published date: 14 September 2020
• Author: Luwaya, N.

1

Working against violence against

women: How far have we come?

NOLUNDI LUWAYA* and JAMEEL AH OMA R†

This ar ticle is the framing chapter of this collection of articles. It

discusses violence against women th rough the lens of the three ma in

themes that a lso run t hrough the collection. The rst theme focuses

on sexual v iolence as a particula r manifestation of v iolence against

women. The second theme includes a discussion of legal a nd policy

discourses of violence in international and reg ional law, as well a s

the challenges faced by women at t he margins of societ y. The nal

theme addre sses the dicult ies for women who work against v iolence

again st women, whether as schol ars or practitioners, a nd considers

the toll and costs associated with doing this work. The discussion of

these themes is used to both acknowledge the systematic nat ure of

these chal lenges and to problematise the challenges, by reecting on

the repeated violences, acknowledging new(er) man ifestations, and

asking probing questions about how trends in public outrage can

impact on lega l, policy a nd practice developments.

I IN TRODUCTION

Violence against women is not a new subject. It has been wr itten

about and spoken about often and continually throughout time.

That does not make it a moot topic; instead, due to its preva lence,

it is always ripe for discussion. According to a 2012 report by

the World Health Organization, one in ever y three women wi ll

experience either sexual or physical violence in their lifetime,

usually before the age of 15.1 Despite the existence of well-drafted

written laws in many jur isdictions, including South Africa, the

levels of violence against women are alarming. National policies

increasingly pay lip-service to the goal of eradicating violence

against women – more recently, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s

State of the Nation address promised to appoint a new task team

* BA L LB LLM (UCT); Director, L and and Accou ntability Research Unit,

Universit y of Cape Town.

† L LB LLM (UCT); Senior L ecturer, Depart ment of Public Law, Universit y

of Cape Town.

1 World Hea lth Organiza tion World Report o n Violence and Health (20 02).

2020 Acta Juridica 1

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2 VIOLENCE AGAI NST WOMEN

to deal with the issue.2 Given the prevalence of sexual oences

and the pervasiveness of violence against women in its var ious

manifestations, this seems a wholly inadequate response.

This edition brings together a number of voices and

perspectives on dierent aspects of violence against women. It is

a collection of accounts of violence(s), since the harm perpetrated

on women is far-reaching and multi-pronged. Women are targets

in the international arena, the regiona l arena and at the local

level. Women suer at the hands of the state, institutions, society

generally, and their loved ones.

The violence that women experience includes a range of all

types of physical harm – assault, domestic violence and sexual

violence – but also emotiona l abuse, economic inequality,

insecure citizenship and disputes about child custody; the list is

ongoing. In this article, where we refer to violence, it is with the

full acknowledgment that the types of violence are multi-faceted,

intersectional and far-reaching.

During the few weeks in which we were writing this article,

several serious incidents of violence on women were perpetrated

– the rape and murder of Uyinene Mrwet yana and the murder of

Jessie Hess, to mention only two. Every day on social media there

are reports of children, particularly girl children, who have gone

missing. These incidents have publicised violence aga inst women

and related issues, once again propelling them into the nationa l

discourse. As authors and editors of this collection, we struggled

with the enormous f rustration and hopelessness of knowing that

our work, while important, will not change the insecurity w ith

which the majority of South Afr ican women live. Particularly in

a legal context, the impotence of the law to change the reality

of women and to prevent and punish violence against women

eectively makes our work all the more frustrating to pursue.3

This makes the task of doing work on violence against women

additionally taxing.

2 P resident Cyril R amaphosa ‘State of t he Nation Address 2019’, avail able at

http s://w ww. gov. za /so na 20 19.

3 J O mar ‘Violence a gain st women: Law is not t he solution’ Daily

Maverick 6 September 2 019 available at ht tps://www.daily maverick.co.z a/

opinionist a/2019-09-0 6-violence-a gainst -women-law-is-not-the -solution/.

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