28 April 2008
analysis
Washington, DC — "In the Southern African region the results of a large scale household survey conducted in eight countries showed that nearly a fifth of the women interviewed reported being a victim of partner physical violence in the preceding year. ... South African based-studies have found that women who experience intimate partner violence are at long-term increased risk of HIV infection, particularly where their partners were involved in multiple concurrent, unprotected sexual relationships." - Amnesty International
In a report released in March, based on interviews in two South African provinces and extensive consultation with South African agencies involved with the issue, Amnesty International provides a detailed portrait of the situation of rural women, and the interaction among violence, poverty, and the risk of HIV/AIDS. The report's title, quoting one of the women interviewed, is "I am at the lowest end of all."
The full 124-page report is available at
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR53/001/2008/en In this and another issue sent out today, AfricaFocus Bulletin provides brief excerpts from the report's overview and the section on violence against women. The overview also provides a useful concise survey of the development of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa, including the debates about government policy and the active role of civil society.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on related issues, see http://www.africafocus.org/healthexp.php
"I am at the lowest end of all"
Rural women living with HIV face human rights abuses in South Africa
March 2008 AI Index: AFR 53/001/2008
Amnesty International
2. Violence against women and HIV
[Excerpts For full 124-page report, including footnotes and references, see
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR53/001/2008/en For additional excerpts, including table of contents, see http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ai0804a.php]
"He threatened to kill me and burn down the house if I did not take him back ... So I returned back to stay with him." [Testimony of SS who had been raped and repeatedly beaten by her husband and was fearing receiving the results of her HIV test.]50
"In spite of ample empirical evidence to this effect, states have yet to fully acknowledge and act upon the interconnection between the mutually reinforcing pandemics of VAW and HIV-AIDS". (UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, July 2007)51
South Africa is continuing to experience a major HIV epidemic within a context of persistent and high levels of violence against women (VAW). As noted in the UN Secretary-General"s Study in 2006 on patterns and consequences of VAW, this is a global phenomenon which is both a violation of women"s human rights and prevents women from enjoying other human rights and fundamental freedoms.
...
The South African Constitution of 1996 guarantees that everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes "the right ... to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources".54 Despite this constitutional guarantee thousands of women and girls experience sexual and other forms of violence every year in South Africa. In July 2007 the national Minister of Safety and Security, Mr Charles Nqakula, observed from analysis of the past six years of crime statistics that "the fact that instances of serious and violent crime are very high is disconcerting and unacceptable." They included rape, "indecent assault"55 and attempts to commit these crimes. The Minister also observed that "poorer communities" were experiencing "more violent crime than wealthier ones," and "at least two thirds of all serious and violent crimes happen between people who know one another and who will be found mostly within the confines of the same social environment.56
As is evident from the Minister"s comments, violence or the threat of violence is a pervasive problem for many people in South Africa. Women and girls can experience gender-based violence or witness it from a very early age. Indicative of the scale of the problem were the results of a national survey conducted in the early 2000s, in which a third of the 1,000 women interviewed had experienced physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse, most typically in their home environment, and two-thirds had experienced at least one form of abuse. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) concluded after hearings on school-based violence in 2006 that schools were the "most likely place where children would become victims of crime including crimes of sexual violence". A national cross-sectional study of nearly 270,000 high school students in 2002 identified an "expectation of sexual coercion among the youth".57 A majority of the women whom AI interviewed in May 2007 had experienced, witnessed or were aware of incidents of violence in the home or rapes occurring in the wider community, including in schools or while en route to school, or on farms where some of the women had worked as seasonal contract workers.
The consequences for the health and psychological well-being of the women and girls subjected to these forms of violence can be devastating. At the same time violence against women and girls can have damaging psychological effects on boys who witness their mothers being beaten or their sisters" abuse at the hands of fathers and partners. Research evidence indicates that men who had witnessed domestic violence during their childhood were responsible for significantly higher levels of abuse against women in their adult lives, as opposed to men who had not witnessed violence against women in their childhood.58 For women and girls experiencing violence and abuse, the consequences are immediate, but can also be longer-term, including through provoking a change of behaviour in the victim. ...
Sexual violence and its consequences
"We live in fear. There is nothing we can do to protect ourselves." (Testimony of LE, a rape survivor living with HIV in rural KwaZulu Natal)61
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The World Health Organization has commented on the "profound impact" of sexual violence on the physical and mental health of survivors. Its impact can include physical injury and is associated with "an increased risk of a range of sexual and reproductive health problems, with both immediate and long-term consequences." There is also a serious and possibly long-term impact on the victim"s mental health.63 The link between gender-based violence and HIV is most apparent in respect to the crime of rape, which can lead to direct HIV transmission. Due to the high HIV prevalence and high levels of sexual violence in South Africa, women are at risk of contracting HIV as a consequence of rape.64 ...
Reported cases of rape amounted nationally to 117 per 100,000 of the population in the financial year April 2006 to March 2007, with a range from 80.6 (Limpopo) to 142.8 (Northern Cape) in the nine provinces.69 Research and support organizations believe, however, that the actual figures annually are much higher than those cases reported to the police, because of the social and economic pressures which discourage women from reporting rape.70 ...
Police analysis in 2007 of reported cases indicated that "76 per cent of rapes covered by the sample studied involved people known to one another." In just under a fifth of the total cases the perpetrators were relatives.72 Women in certain areas also seem to be at greater risk of violence. From an analysis of crime patterns at the police station area-level, it appears that 40 per cent of the cases of rape and other "socially motivated contact crimes" such as murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (assault GBH), which were reported in 2006/2007, had occurred in only ten per cent of the 1,105 police station jurisdictions.73 Of the areas where AI conducted its interviews in May 2007, all but one fell within the areas of the police stations with the highest reporting rates.
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