Women have called for SADC governments to stop all forms of abuse and violence against women at the SADC Peoples Summit organized by the Southern Africa People Solidarity Network (SAPSN) held last week in Windhoek, Namibia, under the theme ‘Reclaiming SADC for social, economic and political justice, free movement and use of natural resources for youth employment, affordable land and housing for all.’
Over 800 delegates from grassroots social movements, community based organisations, faith based organisations, small scale food producers, women’s organisations, labour, students, youths, children, economic justice, human rights, people with disabilities and other various sectors of social movements were drawn from the various countries in the SADC region.
Women protested that there are alarmingly high child marriages in the region citing that 39% of girls are marrying before the age of 18. They also lamented the weak knowledge management and documentation on ending child marriage. The issues of unabated lack of progress on ending violence against women in the region, glaring exclusion of women in developmental processes and traditional leadership, structures that do not respect the voices of marginalised groups were also raised.
Speaking to The Tenacity Post on the side-lines of the SADC People Summit in Namibia, Mozambiquen Fórum Mulher Communication Officer, Aida Nhavoto, said “As women, we demand SADC governments to put measures to stop all forms of violence against women particularly based on gender. We demand improved public transport system that ensures the safety of women in cities.”
She continued to urge governments to deal with abuses such as gender mutilation that is also rampant in some SADC countries
Part of the resolutions of the SADC People Summit stated that its citizens are concerned with the shrinking civic and citizens’ space, human rights violations and persecutions targeting human rights defenders in the region. Delegates claimed that there is limited freedom of movement of citizens in the region and also lack of trade facilitation, inadequate border infrastructure, and limited access to finance, lack of markets, limited knowledge about simplified trade protocols and harassment of informal sector and cross border traders as part of other challenges increasing the harassment in the SADC region.
