GENDER RESEARCH & ADVOCACY PROJECT
OBJECTIVE
The Gender Research & Advocacy Project seeks to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women through legal research, law reform and related advocacy work.GOALS
The following are the key goals of the project:
- To conduct research aimed at assessing the effectiveness of existing laws in serving the needs of women and men and making proposals for new laws where necessary
- To encourage and facilitate law reform
- To increase public involvement in the law reform process
- To raise public awareness of new and existing laws and the underlying issues they address
- To provide training materials and training of trainers for key service providers involved in the implementation of gender-related laws
- To ensure that gender concerns are incorporated into programmes aimed at good governance and improved social welfare
QUICK FACTS
Five key statistics about women in Namibia:POLITICAL CONTEXT
It has been noted time and time again that the Namibian Constitution provides a strong backdrop for sexual equality. But the Constitutional guarantees of sexual equality do not work automatically. For purposes of continuity and clarity, all laws in force at the date of independence remain in force until they are explicitly repealed or amended by Parliament, or declared unconstitutional by a competent court.Likewise, Namibia is frequently applauded for being a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, with no reservations – a wholehearted degree of commitment which is rare amongst the countries of the world.
But the provision of the Constitution which makes these conventions part of our domestic law remains untested. This leaves the provisions of the Namibian Constitution and the UN Conventions largely statements of aspiration, rather than principles which govern the daily lives of Namibians in any practical sense. Law reform on gender issues is vital in bridging the gap between principles and reality.
DEVELOPMENTS
The 18 years since independence have seen a number of significant legal developments for women. Affirmative action provisions in the Local Authorities Act have resulted in strong representation for women at the local level, and the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act is seeking to improve the representation of women in the formal workforce.Labour legislation, including both the Labour Act and the Social Security Act, have addressed gender issues such as maternity protection and sexual harassment. There is a new legal framework for violence against women and children which includes the Combating of Rape Act, the Combating of Domestic Violence Act and amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act designed to protect vulnerable witnesses.
Family law reforms have been more limited -- the Married Persons Equality Act dealing with certain aspects of inequality between husbands and wives, the Communal Land Reform Act which provides for secure land tenure for widows and the Maintenance Act which is intended to advance women’s economic independence through a more workable system for obtaining child maintenance.
FUTURE CHALLENGES
GR&AP feels that the following areas of focus are necessary during the next 5 to 10 years in order to consolidate gains made, to move sexual equality more deeply into the family arena and to ensure that the existing reforms are effective in practice and not just on paper.IMPLEMENTATION
One key area of work concerns implementation.For example, we have recently completed an extensive study of the operation of the Combating of Rape Act 8 of 2000, which is the first major study of the incidence and response to any crime in Namibia.
We have had reports of serious problems with implementation of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act 4 of 2003, with people being turned away by public officials who say that they either do not have the forms or do not understand the law. We are in the process of conducting field research on protections orders issued under the new law.
Similar problems are reported in respect of the Maintenance Act 9 of 2003. Spot interviews conducted by the Legal Assistance Centre with magistrates, maintenance officers, clerks of court and attorneys indicate that many people are still ‘using’ the old law – which is no longer valid – because they do not understand the new one. Many of our clients report negative experiences with uninformed or unhelpful personnel in the maintenance courts. This means that hoped for impact on the gender dimension of poverty alleviation is not being realised. We are currently seeking funds for a broad and systematic study of the implementation of this law.
We expect similar implementation concerns to arise with new and forthcoming legislation, such as the sexual harassment provisions in the new Labour Act and the forthcoming laws on children.
PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING & AWARENESS
A second concern is public understand and awareness of old and new legal rights. It is in this area that we have been trying to combine information about old and new laws with training in advocacy techniques, to help women know their rights and feel comfortable about asserting them.One avenue we would like to explore more strategically is the use of radio to reach more people at grassroots level with information about gender-related laws and how to use them – particularly through the use of the various indigenous language services which are very popular.
ADDITIONAL LAW REFORMS
A third area of importance is additional law reforms. The entire legal framework on children’s rights is in the process of being overhauled.The Children’s Status Act, recently passed by Parliament (but still awaiting regulations and formal enactment), deals with the rights of children born outside marriage and children left without legal guardians.
It will soon be followed by the Child Care & Protection Bill, which will address a wide range of issues relating to children in need of care or protection. There have been few family law reforms up to now, and virtually nothing in the field of customary law. But this is a wave of law reform that is coming.
The government’s Law Reform & Development Commission has released reports on divorce and on the recognition of customary marriage (using our research as a starting point), and work on marital property issues and cohabitation is underway, with the Gender Research & Advocacy Project and the Law Reform and Development Commission working closely together on these projects.
Reforms in Namibia’s laws on inheritance, sure to be controversial, should also move forward over the next several years.
Another area which needs investigation is the rights and responsibilities of step-parents and step-children (as step-children are at present a vulnerable group).
Getting appropriate law reforms in place to serve the interests of women in this most personal of fields is sure to be an uphill battle, given the fact that gender stereotypes are so strongly alive and well in Namibia. The work needed in this area is research (field research combined with research on laws in other countries) to develop law reform proposals, and advocacy to ensure that Parliament enacts laws which will serve the needs of Namibia women, men and children.
These three broad areas of action will be the focus of GR&AP in the next 3 to 5 years.