Pambazuka News 388: Ending impunity for sexual and gender based violence

'We have to think very seriously about what it means to sustain a resistance against the tyranny that is part of everyday life for women' - Andrea Dworkin

The recent passing of UN Resolution 1820 that recognizes sexual violence as a threat to human security has been received with mixed reactions from various quarters. Women’s rights activists note with concern the fact that this resolution is less comprehensive and a duplicate of 1325 that already acknowledges the impunity of sexual an...read more

Salome (not her real name) slowly stands up to tell her story after about five other women had spoken. In a clear gentle voice she begins to narrate her own experience that leaves one confused, hurting and the feeling to immediately act.

“My name is Salome. My home is 70 kms away from here in place called Ritchuru. I used to live there in my parent home until things changed for me about 3 years ago. One day when I was coming to Goma town to sell some wares I met about three soldiers on...read more

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 c...read more

It is now fashionable in academic and activist circles to speak of transitional justice in normative, inflexible terms that suggest a utopian certainty. Nothing could be further from the truth. At the outset, we need to understand that transitional justice concepts are experimental – good experiments to be sure – but that they do not offer us tested panacea because they are essentially works in progress. This is not meant to diminish the utility of the concepts or to throw cold water on them ...read more

As a gender activist and secondly, as a Parliamentarian, I will provide an understanding of the Sierra Leone Parliament by highlighting its work thus far in relation to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). I will give a situational analysis of the prevalence and incidence of sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone before, during and after the war and its consequences on women, girls and society at large. This will be followed by responses of government bodies at ending sexual and...read more

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