Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
rape
Violence against women in Africa: from discrimination to impunity
A call for ratification and implementation of the Maputo Protocol
2008-08-07, Issue 392
African Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to remember that gender-based violence is one of the most serious and widespread violations of the basic rights of women, particularly on the African continent. Gender discrimination is both one of the causes and an aggravating factor of the consequences of violence against women, thus contributing to the perpetuation of impunity of such cases....
Enforcement of the Sexual Offences Act in Kenya
Anne Kithaka
2008-08-05, Issue 392
INTRODUCTION Is the criminal justice system in Kenya well equipped to protect women from gender-based violence? This a critical question because in July this year, the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) is celebra...
The case of the severed penis
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi
2008-07-30, Issue 391
I was on a flight from Entebbe to Nairobi on June 30 when I read The New Vision's front page story titled "Mother cuts off defiler's penis."By the time I finished the story, my spirits were up and I have been in a great mood ever since....
From frameworks and norms on SGBV to action
FAWE in Sierra Leone
Eileen Hanciles
2008-07-14, Issue 388
FAWE is a Pan- African organization with operations in thirty-five countries in Africa. FAWE Sierra Leone was started in 1995, at the height of the civil war. One of the Chapter’s many emergency intervention which was borne from the determination of women to restore dignity to other women and girls is the programme of assistance to victims of gender –based violence in internally displaced camps, returnees and juveniles in domestic settings. In February 1999, after the allied forces regained control of the capital, it was reported that a number of FAWE school students were raped while the rebels were retreating. As some of these victims had already been subjected to rape in their areas of origin, FAWE decided to address the issue of rape once and for all, break the silence and create a culture that says no to violence against women.
SGBV in the Great Lakes Region
Liberata Mulamula
2008-07-14, Issue 388
Let me first and foremost start by emphasizing that the theme: Ending Impunity on Sexual and Gender Based Violence is a befitting one, writes Liberata Mulamula. This conference could not have come at a more opportune moment. The high prevalence of SGBV in our continent and the Great Lakes region in particular has heightened resolve to work together for action, to turn rhetoric to practice.
War and sexual based violence in Northern Uganda
Florence Okio
2008-07-14, Issue 388
Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) became involved in Uganda in 1979. This was immediately after the “Liberation war” which saw the departure of Idi Amin’s regime. The first programme was in the North of the Country based in Gulu district. ACORD was majorly responding to the emergency needs as a result of the war. ACORD has now expanded its programme in the whole of Acholi sub region, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, West Nile sub region, Adjumani and Moyo and the Western part of the country Mbarara programme all under ACORD in Uganda programme. The main intervention currently is focusing on developmental issues and to address the injustices in service delivery by using the right based approach to development as a strategy. ACORD is also engaged in Advocacy and Lobbying for the voice less society in the region to present their issues to the policy makers for a better life. In 2004, ACORD conducted a research to find out the relationship between HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The result of the study showed very strong linkages between the two.
Peace with sexual violence is still war!
Stephen Lewis
2008-06-05, Issue 378
When my co-Director of AIDS-Free World, Paula Donovan, visited in November, and observed that the war being waged against women “may well be the most savage display of misogyny ever orchestrated in a conflict zone”, she was right. Terrible, unspeakable things have been done to the women of DR Congo, writes Stephen Lewis. It isn’t enough to stop the shooting when the raping continues apace. The only worthwhile armistice restores peace for the entire population, male and female. There can be no satisfaction in claiming a truce or a peace treaty which is soaked in the carnage of the women of the land. If all the peacekeepers were women, and the men of a country were under pervasive sexual assault, do you think the women would simply observe the carnage?
Women left for dead—and the man who’s saving them
Eve Ensler
2008-05-22, Issue 374
In the Congo, where tens of thousands of women are brutally raped every year, Dr. Denis Mukwege repairs their broken bodies and souls. Eve Ensler visits him and finds hope amid the horror.
Congo's rape and sexual violence: UN's delinquency
Stephen Lewis
2008-04-15, Issue 364
Stephen Lewis argues that the level of rape and sexual violence in the Congo is an act of criminal international misogyny, sustained by the indifference of nation states and the delinquency of the United Nations.
Congo women - violence in war and in peace
Marie-Claire Faray-Kele
2008-03-12, Issue 354
Marie Claire Faray-kele argues that even though the bodies of Congolese women were used as battlefields in the DRC war, they are now being excluded from peace process
Liberia Women: Their Issues and Challenge
Una Kumba Thompson
2008-03-06, Issue 351
Una Kumba Thompson talks about the special challenges facing Liberian women and calls for greater solidarity amongst African women
African women and domestic violence
Takyiwaa Manuh
2007-11-28, Issue 330
The experience of using law to address the issue of domestic violence in Africa contains both positive and negative lessons for gender-equality campaigners, says Takyiwaa Manuh.
The raging debate over women's reproductive autonomy
Salma Maoulidi
2007-11-29, Issue 330
Salma Maoulidi examines the link between abortion and women's reproductive autonomy