Back to Index

Gender based violence: Government must act
Youth Forum
November 28, 2011

As Zimbabwe joins the world in celebrating the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, under the theme "From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let's Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women!", it is important for the government to look into ways of stopping all forms of violence that have bedeviled our beautiful country, Zimbabwe. Incidents of violence have been on the increase recently in the country and the authorities are not doing enough to stop this ill in our society. The violence has not spared the women, and studies have shown that violence perpetrated against men will result in their close female relatives/partners suffering even serious emotional pain.

Violence in Zimbabwe has been mainly perpetrated by the Para-military Border Gezi graduates trained under government funds and monitoring, something that this year's theme is scrutinizing.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute. Those chosen dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women, and December 10, International Human Rights Day, were chosen in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates, including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day.

Eliminating violence against women has long been a part of the Youth Forum' programming. The Youth Forum recognizes that equal participation of women in the political, economic and social spheres of society is central to sustainable development. Promoting women's rights and reducing violence against women is essential for increasing development effectiveness. Unless women fully experience human rights, to which freedom from violence is inextricably bound, progress towards development goals will continue to fall short.

In this vein, the Forum urges the government to:

• raise awareness at the local and national levels about gender-based violence
• strengthen local work
• link local and global work
• provide a forum for dialogue and strategy-sharing
• implement commitments made in national and international legal instruments
• increasing access to psychosocial, legal, and health services

Visit the Youth Forum fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP