Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill, 2005
The National Working Group on the Sexual Offences Bill made a submission on 30 October 2005. The working group includes the following organizations:
- Aids Law Project;
- Childline SA;Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS);
- Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR);
- Concerned People Against Abuse;Lawyers for Human Rights;
- Ngata Safety and Health Promotion;
- Nisaa Institute for Women’s Development;
- People Opposing Woman Abuse(POWA);
- Port Elizabeth Rape Crisis Centre;
- Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust;
- Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN);
- Save the Children Sweden;
- Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT);
- Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme;
- Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre;
- Western Cape Network on Violence against Women;
- andWomen’s Legal Centre.
This submission begins by explaining why violence against women is an obstacle to the socio-economic development of South Africa. It then provides statistics on the extent of the problem before setting out the policies and laws which have been developed to address violence against women, or gender-based violence. Thereafter, the submission presents research findings reporting on the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act (hereafter the Act or DVA). This section places strong emphasis on the budgets provided to implement the Act, based on the understanding that budgets reflect a government’s policy priorities and are a useful barometer of the extent to which political commitments are translated into fiscal commitments. The submission as a whole concludes with an overview of the progress and contents of the draft Sexual Offences Bill.