Sonke Gender Justice

Publication Type: External Reports

  • Together We Must End Violence Against Women and Girls and HIV & AIDS

    Together We Must End Violence Against Women and Girls and HIV & AIDS

    Violence against women and girls (VAWG) and HIV/AIDS represent two of the greatest dangers to the health, well-being and productivity of women worldwide. Threats and violence limit women’s ability to negotiate safer sex and to control the terms of their sexual encounters. Women and girls are two to four times more likely to contract HIV during unprotected sex than men because their sexual physiology places them at a higher risk of injury, and because they are more likely to experience violent or coercive sexual intercourse. Because violence against women and HIV/AIDS are mutually reinforcing pandemics, the need and the opportunity for integrated approaches addressing their intersection is increasingly evident.

    Together We Must! is organized around four broad-based strategies for tackling the intersection: community mobilization to transform harmful gender norms; engagement of marginalized groups that are often more vulnerable to the twin pandemics; development of integrated approaches to support and care; and advocacy for greater accountability among funding agencies and policy makers. Together, these strategies offer valuable lessons and promising practices for other organizations and highlight the need for formal evaluations of initiatives to better understand and enhance their impact.

  • Zambia National Women’s Lobby

    Zambia National Women’s Lobby

    Gender-based violence is one of the critical issues affecting women and children throughout Zambia. As a response to the gender-based violence, the Men’s Network Project organised a Men’s Campfire Conference to sensitise the community on gender violence. The Men‘s Campfire Conference was held from 29 to 30th August, 2009 in Kasenga Resettlement area, 40km north east of Lusaka. This was to sensitise the community due to the increased cases of gender-based violence in the area, many of which go unreported. The Men‘s Network felt that it was important to engage men in this vast community to play a role in addressing GBV as well as engaging the community leadership to support women in their bid for leadership. This report provides an overview of the conference as well as the discussions that took place.

  • Integrating Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and AIDS Interventions

    Integrating Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and AIDS Interventions

    The public health and international development communities have known for nearly two decades that gender – the way in which societies define acceptable roles, responsibilities, and behaviors of women and men – strongly influences how HIV spreads and how people respond to the epidemic. Because of the interrelated factors that contribute to HIV infection, there is growing recognition that using multiple approaches in HIV/AIDS programming is more effective than single strategies.

    That said, we know little about how implementers use gender-based programs to improve HIV services, and even less about how programs integrate multiple gender strategies to mitigate women’s and men’s vulnerability to infection.

    To begin filling these gaps, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) AIDSTAR-One project created this compendium of selected HIV programs in sub-Saharan Africa that integrate multiple gender strategies. Technical oversight in developing the compendium was provided by the USAID AIDSTAR-One partner organization, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). Featured programs address at least two of the following gender strategies: 1) reducing violence and sexual coercion; 2) addressing male norms and behaviors; 3) increasing women’s legal protection; and 4) increasing women’s access to income and productive resources. The compendium describes each of the 31 selected programs, and synthesizes trends and findings to provide initial insights on using multiple gender strategies in HIV programming, including how strategies are employed together, where gaps exist, and what lessons and experiences are common across programs. Though not meant to be exhaustive, the compendium represents the depth and breadth of current HIV programming that includes multiple gender strategies.

    Overall, we found that many innovative programs exist in sub-Saharan Africa and that implementers are successfully integrating multiple gender approaches into HIV programs. Program implementers report numerous benefits of combining gender strategies, including ensuring project salience and relevance, extending project reach, and reflecting the multiple, interrelated needs of beneficiaries.

    The overall findings summarize how people are integrating gender strategies, how the four specific gender strategies are being used and are working, and how people are learning from and sharing their experiences toward strengthening programs and expanding successes.

  • Making Progress against AIDS?

    Making Progress against AIDS?

    The National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS and STIs 2007-2011 (the NSP) was adopted in May 2007. This report aims to collate the available evidence to assess the extent to which South Africa is meeting the targets of the NSP, in particular the targets set for 2008. It shows that while there have been some areas of progress (such as increasing numbers of people on ARV treatment), overall the national response remains weak.

  • Submissions by the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative Impact on the Child Justice Act

    Submissions by the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative Impact on the Child Justice Act

    These submissions are based, for the most part, on the CSPRI’s “Report on Children in Prison in South Africa (“the Report”),” which was published in May 2012. The Report is a comprehensive review of the situation of children in South Africa’s prisons and was undertaken with the following aims in mind: (a) to establish baseline information in respect of the imprisonment of children with a view to monitor the implementation of the Child Justice Act; and (b) to provide stakeholders with reliable information to be used in advocacy for prison and sentencing reform.

    The research therefore focussed on: (a) investigating the legislative and policy framework pertaining to children in prison with particular reference to the Correctional Services Act and the Child Justice Act; (b) the conditions in which children are detained; (c) services rendered to sentenced and unsentenced children in prison; and (d) Statistics on children in prison in respect of age, gender, race, sentence profile, and offence profile.

    The sources of data used in compiling the report, were: (a) Individual interviews with 19 children from a select number of prisons where children (sentenced and unsentenced) were detained. These prisons are: Brandvlei, Cradock, Emthonjeni, Kroonstad, Pollsmoor, Port Elizabeth, Rustenburg and Westville; (b) A checklist on infrastructure, conditions of detention and services to children were administered by Independent Visitors of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) at 41 prisons; and (c) Quantitative data on children in the correctional system was extracted from the DCS MIS with the assistance of the JICS.

    Many of the Report’s findings have a bearing on the Child Justice Act. These will be presented in this submission.

  • A Summary of the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Amendment Act

    A Summary of the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Amendment Act

    The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act has been in effect since 16 December 2007 and affects the punishment of sexual crimes committed after this date. The Act replaces some common law provisions on sexual offences and some sections of the old law, the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957. The Act also creates new sexual crimes.

    The main aims of the new Act are to:

    1. Include all sexual crimes in one law;
    2. Define all sexual crimes;
    3. Make all forms of sexual abuse or exploitation a crime;
    4. Make sure that both men and women can use the law with regard to sexual crimes;
    5. Make sure that government departments work together to protect complainants from unfair treatment or trauma;
    6. Improve the way the criminal justice system (the courts and police) works;
    7. Make the age when both men and women can give permission (consent) to have sex, 16 years;
    8. Make sure that rape survivors get post-exposure prophlaxis (PEP), which is medical treatment that can reduce their chances of getting HIV from the rape;
    9. Allow rape survivors to find out if the person who raped them has HIV;
    10. Establish a National Register (a list of names) for Sex Offenders.

    This booklet summarizes the key provisions in the new Act and related laws. The booklet does not analyse the effectiveness of these provisions.

  • Testing the Effectiveness of the Men as Partners Program (MAP) in Soweto, South Africa

    Testing the Effectiveness of the Men as Partners Program (MAP) in Soweto, South Africa

    This project was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Men as Partners (MAP) program in South Africa in terms of: changing men’s gender attitudes, norms and behaviors; changing aspects of gender dynamics in relationships; reducing the prevalence of unwanted pregnancy risk behaviors at individual and community levels; and increasing male involvement in GBV and HIV prevention and in HIV care and support activities. The study was conducted in collaboration with EngenderHealth and Hope Worldwide. This report details the process of the study, form its implementation, execution, results, successes and challenges.

  • Final Report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of Corruption, Maladministration and Violence in the Department of Correctional Services

    Final Report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of Corruption, Maladministration and Violence in the Department of Correctional Services

    In August 2001, the State President appointed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on corruption, maladministration, violence, and intimidation in the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).

    The full report of the Commission is a lengthy document, some 1 800 pages long, and it must be assumed that only the most dedicated researchers and officials will read and study it in its entirety. It is important that the substance of the report be made more accessible to stakeholders, so that the debate arising from the Commission may be sustained. Debating the findings of the Commission is important and ought to involve civil society and oversight structures that have a role to play in ensuring that good governance is maintained and corruption and human rights abuses in the prison system are countered.

    This document summarises the findings of the Commission’s report in a user-friendly question-and-answer format to allow the reader ease of reference to key issues. The objectives of this report are to: (1) summarise selected important issues covered by the Commission; (2) provide a plain language document, which is accessible to government departments, academics and civil society; and (3) encourage discussion and debate on key recommendations made by the Commission.

  • 2007 Clinical Guidelines on Antiretroviral Therapy Management for Displaced Populations

    2007 Clinical Guidelines on Antiretroviral Therapy Management for Displaced Populations

    This policy is intended to offer guidance to clinicians, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and governments on the provision of ART among displaced populations, including prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT), post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and long term ART. They are not meant to replace national guidelines but to provide additional guidance to health workers to deal with the specific needs of these populations.

    As with all HIV and AIDS policies and programmes, ART must be linked to prevention, care and support programmes. ART should not be implemented as a parallel intervention, but rather as part of an integrated programme that is in itself linked to other existing services (e.g. reproductive health, nutrition, education and social services).

    The guidance set forth in this document applies to all displaced populations, including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants. Specific guidance is necessary not only due to the unique characteristics of these populations, but also due to their specific vulnerabilities and frequent exclusion from HIV and AIDS related services.

  • Women, Men and Gun Violence

    Women, Men and Gun Violence

    A growing global effort to collect information on gun violence that is broken down into age, ethnicity, and sex is helping challenge some over-generalisations that hinder more refined understanding of the impacts of small arms misuse. These include statements like ‘80% of the victims of armed violence are women and children’. This claim may be true in some contexts, particularly recent wars in some African nations; but in general, it is primarily men – young, poor, socially marginalised men most of all — who are killed or injured from gun violence. Men are also more likely to commit gun violence: in almost every country, a disproportionate percentage of gun owners and users are men. Although women are not the majority of homicide victims, when they are killed – and it is overwhelmingly men who kill them – guns are often a preferred weapon. This paper looks at the gendered effects and nature of gun violence and provides recommendations on reducing the widespread human security impacts it produces.

  • Joint AIDS Law Project & Treatment Action Campaign Submission

    Joint AIDS Law Project & Treatment Action Campaign Submission

    ALP and TAC argue that the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons (“the Judicial Inspectorate”) should be further strengthened, with the powers of the Inspecting Judge expanded to enable him or her to discharge his or her public interest mandate appropriately. For example, instead of simply submitting a report, the Inspecting Judge should expressly be empowered to publish the report once the Minister has been given a reasonable period to respond to any adverse findings potentially contained in such a report. However, instead of strengthening the Judicial Inspectorate, the Correctional Services Amendment Bill [B 32—2007] (“the Bill”) seeks to achieve the very opposite. In this submission, therefore, attention is focussed on those provisions of the Bill that – if promulgated into law – would have this undesirable and constitutionally suspect outcome. In addition, certain provisions dealing with three issues of concern are addressed: the rights of inmates; the rights of members; and the unjustifiable expansion of the Minister’s authority. In respect of each area of focus, we make specific recommendations.

  • Politicising Masculinities

    Politicising Masculinities

    This report draws on conversations and inspirations from the Politicising Masculinities symposium which took place 15-18 October 2007 in Dakar, Senegal. The symposium was borne out of a realisation that much of the most innovative work on men and masculinities has worked at the level of the personal, such as seeking to transform men’s sexual behaviour, violence against women and relations of fatherhood. The HIV epidemic has forced an open space for greater acknowledgement of the fluidity and diversity of men’s sexual and social identities. But relatively little of the innovative thinking and practice that has taken place in relation to these issues has been carried into other areas of development work. Masculine privilege remains unproblematised in mainstream development; and within gender and development the ‘men as problem, women as victim’ discourse continues to hold sway. Both rest on essentialisms that are rarely brought into question. At the same time, work on men and masculinities in development has arguably failed to engage sufficiently with core equity issues, whether in terms of equal pay and leave entitlements, representation in politics, parental rights and benefits, or domestic work, to change the institutions that sustain inequitable gender and sex orders. Amidst recognition that HIV prevention needs to go beyond individual behaviour change and that male violence is also a structural issue, the organisers felt it was time to move the debate beyond the personal to address questions of power and politics.

  • HIV and AIDS and STI Strategic Plan for South Africa, 2007-2011

    HIV and AIDS and STI Strategic Plan for South Africa, 2007-2011

    HIV and AIDS is one of the main challenges facing South Africa today. It is estimated that of the 39.5 million people living with HIV worldwide in 2006, and that more than 63% are from sub-Saharan Africa. About 5.54 million people are estimated to be living with HIV in South Africa in 2005, with 18.8% of the adult population (15-49) affected. Women are disproportionately affected; accounting for approximately 55% of HIV positive people. Women in the age group 25-29 are the worst affected with prevalence rates of up to 40%. For men the peak is reached at older ages, with an estimated 10% prevalence among men older than 50 years. HIV prevalence among younger women (under 20 years) seems to be stabilizing, at about 16% for the past three years.

    The HIV & AIDS and STI Strategic Plan for South Africa 2007-2011 flows from the National Strategic Plan of 2000-2005 as well as the Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management, and Treatment. It represents the country’s multi-sectoral response to the challenge with HIV infection and the wide-ranging impacts of AIDS.

    This NSP seeks to provide continued guidance to all government departments and sectors of civil society, building on work done in the past decade. It is informed by the nature, dynamics, character of the epidemic, as well as developments in medical and scientific knowledge. An assessment of the implementation of the NSP 2000-2005 has been useful in defining the capacities of the implementing agencies.

  • 365 Day National Action Plan to End Gender Violence

    365 Day National Action Plan to End Gender Violence

    This National Action Plan is a multi-sector framework and approach for ending gender violence over the period 2007-2009. The plan is in recognition that no single sector, government ministry, or civil society organisation is by itself responsible or has the singular ability to address this challenge. It is envisaged that all the South African government departments and civil society organisations will as stakeholders use this National Action Plan as the basis to develop their own strategic and operational plans to ensure unity of purpose and cohesion of efforts to achieve maximum impact in the process of eradicating this scourge.

  • South Africa Country Report

    South Africa Country Report

    At the 48th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2004, the South Africa government and the governments of other participating countries made formal commitments to implementing a range of recommendations aimed at “involving men and boys in achieving gender equality”.

    These commitments made at the UN CSW are consistent with the values enshrined in the South African Constitution and core to the goals of South Africa’s new democratic dispensation. However, in South Africa, as throughout the world, gender inequality continues to undermine democracy, impede development and compromise people’s lives in dramatic ways. Indeed many studies show that contemporary gender roles and especially rigid notions of manhood contribute to gender based violence and other forms of gender inequality and exacerbate the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. In 2007, the country continues to face high levels of gender based violence, an HIV and AIDS epidemic and deeply entrenched gender inequalities.

    In the face of this, government and civil society organisations have begun to put in place a range of initiatives intended to increase men’s involvement in achieving gender equality. Reflecting this, a growing number of South African men have begun to take action in private and public ways to reject rape and domestic violence and to create a more gender equitable society, which is examined in this report.

  • Hutu and Tutsi Men Working Side By Side in Hillbrow to Challenge the Gender Stereotypes Driving the Spread of HIV and AIDS

    Hutu and Tutsi Men Working Side By Side in Hillbrow to Challenge the Gender Stereotypes Driving the Spread of HIV and AIDS

    In Johannesburg’s notoriously rough inner city community of Hillbrow refugee men have come together despite ethnic differences that have elsewhere led to genocide to provide each other with support and to challenge the gender stereotypes that threaten men and women’s wellbeing. This report encapsulates this dialogue and highlights stories and shared experiences faced by men, as well as the impact of the Men as Partners programme has had on their lives.

  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa

    Report of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa

    Since the abolition of Apartheid in 1994, the non-racial Government of the Republic of South Africa has been improving its laws and policies to meet the challenges brought about by the new dispensation of respect for human rights, human dignity, non-racialism, non-sexism and an open and democratic society. The Government has adopted a number of laws and formulated policies to conform to this new dispensation. To this end, the Government has signed and ratified numerous human rights instruments and adhered to several United Nations and Regional Treaties and Declarations relating to the treatment of offenders and detainees.

    The policy of the Government in this regard seeks to turn all prisons into correctional centres and all prison officials to rehabilitators. As part of the continuing process of enhancing human rights in the country, the government has adopted an open door policy to international, regional and domestic human rights bodies to visit the country and make concrete proposals where government might be falling short. It is on this basis that the South African Government extended an invitation to the African Commission’s Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa to visit the country and inspect its detention facilities.

    The visit falls within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to monitor conditions in prisons and other places of detention in Member States of the African Union and make appropriate recommendations on how to enhance the protection of persons deprived of their liberty.

    The following is an account of the activities undertaken during the mission, including facilities visited, observations and findings and/or problems identified, good practices and relevant recommendations on how to enhance the protection of the rights of persons deprived of their liberty. The report is preceded by a brief overview of prison administration in South Africa.

  • African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

    African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

    The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent. Oversight and interpretation of the Charter is the task of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which was set up in 1987 and is now headquartered in Banjul, Gambia.