VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN NAMIBIA:PERSPECTIVES AND SYSTEMATIC MEASURES TO SUPPORTPERPETRATORSMariana Martin *I. INTRODUCTION
With Angola as its northern neighbour, Zambia and Zimbabwe bordering it to the north-east, andBotswana and South Africa positioned to its east and south, respectively, Namibia is an immense country of
more than 824,418 square kilometres located along the south-western coast of Africa. According to the
Namibia Statistics Agency (2019), the country has a population of approximately 2.1 million of which there isalmost an equal distribution of females and males, 51.5% and 48.4%, respectively.
The country is relatively young, only having gained its independence in 1990 following colonization byGermany from 1884 to 1915 and then by South Africa from 1915 to early 1990. Germany is known to, forexample, have issued an extermination order against the Hereros of Namibia in 1904, resulting in about 75
percent of that population group being wiped out and half of another group, the Namas facing a similar
genocide (Erichsen, 2019).
The South African regime was also a ruthless occupant characterized by a brutal form of institutionalized
oppression and racist rule termed apartheid. During apartheid black Namibians were denied any politicalrights and social and economic freedoms were also restricted (South African History Online, 2015).
Some of the remnants of post-conflict societies include a culture of violence, including violence against
women and children. Reports indicate that conflict and post-conflict communities in sub-Saharan Africa
experience great numbers of gender-based violence (Kinyanda et al., 2016), and Namibia is no exception.
The gang rape of a 13 year-old girl, the murder of two women by a man they were allegedly involved ina romantic relationship with and the hacking to death of a young woman by her partner are just some of thethemes of stories swamping Namibian media on a daily basis. There is a general perception that violenceagainst women and children in Namibia has reached enormous proportions as a day hardly passes without
news pertaining to the phenomenon.
Over one weekend alone in April 2019 one of the country’s daily newspapers reported ten cases ofviolence against women and children that the Windhoek City Police had to attend to, and noted that thereporting of up to twenty such cases on most weekends is not uncommon for the country’s capital city,
Windhoek (Ndalikokule, 2019). A report of 611 cases of domestic violence recorded by the country’s policing
service providers (Namibian Police Force & Windhoek City Police) over a three-month period alone sheds
more light on the extent of the problem (Ikela, 2018).
According to UNICEF Namibia (2015), a third of Namibian women that have ever gotten married haveexperienced physical, sexual and/or emotional violence from their spouse, with half of the perpetrators ofviolence against women typically being someone they were in a relationship with at the time of the offence.
On the 3rd of July 2019, the Namibian Correctional Service recorded 635 cases of sexual violence,
representing the second highest type of offence committed by offenders under its custody on the specificdate, the first highest being murder with 720 cases (Namibian Correctional Service, 2019). However, it is not
unusual for cases of sexual violence to top the list of offence types committed by offenders in Namibia as wasobserved to be the case in October 2017.
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Mariana Martin holds the position of Commissioner: Rehabilitation in the Namibian Correctional Service, Namibia.

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Then again, violence against women and children is a global phenomenon with findings ranging between
16.3% in East Asia and 65.6% in Central Sub-Saharan Africa for violence against women committed by an
intimate partner. Concerning non-partner sexual violence, data indicates that the prevalence ranges between
3.3% and 21.0%, with South Asia having the lowest prevalence and Central Sub-Saharan Africa again having
the highest prevalence (World Health Organization, 2013).
With there generally being consistency between what constitutes violence against women and children,
both regionally and internationally, Namibia’s National Gender Policy 2010-2020 follows international trends
by replacing the term “violence against women and children” with the term “gender-based violence” (Legal
Assistance Centre, 2012). As adopted from the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, gender-based
violence is defined according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (2010) as:
all acts perpetrated against women, men, girls and boys on the basis of their sex,
which causes or could cause them physical, sexual, psychological, emotional or
economic harm, including the threat to take such acts, or to undertake the impositionof arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or
public life, in peace-time and during situations of armed or other forms of conflict,or in situations of natural disasters, that cause displacement of people.
For the above-given reason, this paper will continue to refer to “violence against women and children” as“gender-based violence”.

II. GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN NAMIBIA: A SYNOPSIS
According to the country’s law enforcement agencies, most victims refuse to lay charges against their
abusive intimate partners for fear of losing their relationships should their partners get incarcerated (Ikela,2018). A study conducted with survivors of gender-based violence in Namibia in 2016 confirmed this basedon the accounts of the survivors. Among others, some of the sentiments shared were that concerns over thewelfares of children as well as economic dependency fuelled such fears. Thus, financial dependence appears
to sustain gender-based violence in the country.
He knew…I’ll never take action, I’ll stay in this situation whenever and until whenum he decide, and it never stops, because I used to think uh he’s this man, if he goesto jail what is it going to help, what about my children all these things. . . . I was
expecting my second child when we met…he paid for my rent and it was justcomfortable for me being in this situation…but one day…he was drunk and I believed
he also smoked illegal um, (Is it dagga?) Ya, so …he came and he was swearing a
lot,…and he slapped me…in front of my sister and I was crying and you know, notbecause of the slap but I was so shocked.
The above is consistent with research findings, which indicate that there appears to be a relationshipbetween gender-based violence and poverty or unemployment. Particularly, it was observed that a link
exists between spousal employment status and the risk of physical violence against the female partner(Alonso-Borregoy and Carrascoz, 2016; Krishnan et al., 2010).
A link was also found between gender-based violence and substance abuse. The findings of research
indicate that gender-based violence is five times more prevalent in relationships where one or both of thepartners abuses alcohol. Furthermore, it has been concluded that both alcohol abuse among men and genderbased violence reflect an underlying need for power and control related to gender-based distortions andinsecurities (Miles, Herstad, Shand & Muzenda, 2014).
In respect to the above findings, Namibia’s socio-economic climate is of particular concern: In terms ofeducational attainment, which takes into account full-time attendance at any regular educational institution,
public or private, for systematic instruction, about half (49%) of the population surveyed in 2011 had completed
primary education, with only 6% of that population having had completed tertiary education. No majordifferences existed between males and females in this respect (Namibia Statistics Agency, 2019).
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Although unemployment rates were found to be higher for females compared to males in 2011 (Namibia
Statistics Agency, 2019), with females having an employment rate of 43% compared to 30% for males, areport on the country’s unemployment rates conducted in 2016 revealed that the unemployment rate forfemales had dropped to 38%, while that of males remained stable at 30% (Legal Assistance Centre, 2017).
As more women gain employment and attain economic independence, men are compelled to withdraw
from their traditional roles as breadwinner and provider, which causes tension in terms of gender roles andexpectations. The shift in gender roles for women and the rise of women’s standing in society directly
exacerbates gender-based violence in the African region, especially when men are left lagging behind (Mileset al., 2014).
Furthermore, alcohol abuse is a major problem in the country with a survey documenting that 80% of
14- and 15-year-old school-going children consume alcohol at a high rate (Nampa, 2014). In relation to genderbased violence, a relationship between the excessive use of alcohol and issues of masculinity was also found(Miles et al., 2014).
It is possible to get one’s head around the high prevalence of gender-based violence in Namibia given thepossibility of men having been left feeling emasculated by the country’s colonial history, coupled with theprevailing socio-economic status of the country. A great concern, however, is that a major contributor togender-based violence in the country could be sociocultural factors that perpetuate certain beliefs about
women and the expected gender norms relating to them, which can be used to justify violence against
women as opposed to holding the perpetrators fully liable for their actions.
In 2013 the Inspector-General of the Namibian Police made headlines when he pronounced the wearingof miniskirts illegal. This followed the arrests of 40 girls after they were spotted wearing hot-pants and whatparticularly caused uproar in the Namibian society was the differential treatment of males who did notreceive any threats of arrest despite often wearing sagging trousers, often revealing their underwear.

III. NAMIBIA’S EFFORTS TO COMBAT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
While matters such as the preceding case present some challenges in terms of addressing gender-based
violence in the country, Namibia has made some notable progress in terms of attempting to address some of
the issues relating to gender-based violence. Legislatively, over the past number of years Namibia has
adopted and revised a number of statutes, both relating to gender-based violence and to wider genderrelated issues, which unarguably have bearing on the practice of gender-based violence.
Internationally, the country is party to the following instruments:i.

The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
which prohibits sex discrimination, including gender-based violence;ii.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires countries to protect children fromall forms of violence, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse;iii.

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which affirms that violenceagainst women constitutes a violation of their rights and fundamental freedoms;

iv. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which calls on governments to enact or reinforce
legislation to punish and redress violence against women and girls in homes, the workplace, thecommunity and society;v.

The UN Resolution on the Elimination of Domestic Violence against Women, which calls on states
to, among others, strengthen and implement legislation that prohibits domestic violence and to
focus on the healing of victims and the rehabilitation of perpetrators;

vi. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in
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Africa, which calls for measures to address violence against women taking place both in private
or in public. It also addresses the punishment of perpetrators, the identification of causes ofviolence against women and the provision of services for survivors;
vii. The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, which requires Member States to enact andenforce legislation prohibiting all forms of gender-based violence, to ensure that perpetrators arebrought to justice, and to implement educational policies and programmes addressing genderbased violence, is another piece of legislation the country has adopted.
Nationally, a number of national laws and policies that are relevant to the fight against gender-based
violence were also implemented, but the country’s constitution is perceived as the frontrunner in terms oflaying the foundation to address factors relating to gender-based violence. The Constitution of the Republicof Namibia states under Article 8(1) that “the dignity of all persons shall be inviolable” and under Article 8(2)(b) that “no person shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Article 10 stipulates that “all persons shall be equal before the law” and that “no persons may bediscriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic
status”. Under Article 23(3) it is stated that: “In the enactment of legislation and the application of any
policies and practices contemplated by [the Constitution], it shall be permissible to have regard to the factthat women in Namibia have traditionally suffered special discrimination, and that they need to be encouraged
and enabled to play a full, equal and effective role in the political, social, economic and cultural life of thenation”.
Additionally, Article 95(a), puts forth that “the State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of
the people by adopting, inter alia, policies aimed at the following: enactment of legislation to ensure equalityof opportunity for women, to enable them to participate fully in all spheres of Namibian society”.
All the above provisions pave the way to address gender-based violence with legislative backing. To
translate these principles into concrete policies and actions, a number of measures have been put in place,but, of particular notetaking, is the development of the National Gender Policy, which primarily aims toachieve gender equality and the empowerment of both males and females in the country (Ministry of Gender
Equality & Child Welfare, 2010).
Among others, the policy framework targets to provide:i.

mechanisms and guidelines for all sectors and other stakeholders for planning, implementing andmonitoring gender equality strategies and programmes in order to ensure effective strategies forgender equality and women’s empowerment;ii.

an enabling environment for the empowerment of women to ensure their participation in socioeconomic and decision-making processes in all sectors and at all levels;

iii.

mechanisms and structures for institutional frameworks that can coordinate and guide
implementation of gender equality programmes among partners and in the society, and to monitor
and evaluate gender programming; andiv.

guidelines for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of regional and international
instruments.

In direct relation to gender-based violence, the policy promotes the principle of zero tolerance for genderbased violence and clearly defines its objective in relation to that as reducing the prevalence of gender-based
violence and increasing protection for women and girls. To that effect, it is apparent that the country has
made significant strides in terms of formal measures aimed to protect women against gender-based violence.
Such efforts are solidified by services such as the existence of 15 Women and Child Protection Units ofthe police located around the country that serve the purpose of providing counselling to victims of genderbased violence and referring them to other services; the free provision of psychosocial support to victims of
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gender-based violence by certain government ministries; the possibility for low-income victims of domestic
violence to apply for legal aid; the existence of safe houses that shelter women and children from domestic
violence; and the existence of various non-governmental organizations that provide a range of services tovictims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
However, in relation to perpetrators of gender-based violence, there are virtually no prevention ortreatment programmes targeting them or that are inclusive of their needs as well. The only effort concerningthem seems to be concentrated on their adequate and fair prosecution. From a preventative perspective it
could, of course, be argued that by promoting equality for all, as is centrally the theme at the national level,
could reduce the risks of some individuals turning into perpetrators of gender-based violence.
Yet, the ecological model of violence clearly identifies that various interacting factors influence thedevelopment of gender-based violence and stresses the need for strategies and efforts that target thephenomenon at the individual, relationship, community as well as societal level. In fact the model stresses
that the biggest contributors to people committing gender-based violence are individual characteristics andthe least being those occurring at the societal level (World Health Organization/London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, 2010).
In terms of the ecological model, it identifies four levels of risk factors associated with individuals engaging
in gender-based violence. The four levels along with risk factors for gender-based violence associated witheach level are represented by the diagram1 below:
Figure 1: Ecological Perspective of Gender-based Violence Risk Factors

behaviourAs brought to attention by the World Health Organization/London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine (2010), the greatest risk factors at the individual level are low education, exposure to sexual abuse,having an anti-social personality, substance abuse and endorsement of violence. As such, while Namibia isprogressive in terms of measures at the societal level, the only agency that seems concerned about targeting
individual-level factors relating to gender-based violence seems to be the Namibian Correctional Service,
which targets these risk factors in the case of perpetrators sentenced to incarceration.
1

Source: http://wiki.preventconnect.org/Socio-ecological-Model/

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More clearly needs to be done to comprehensively address perpetrators and those at risk of engaging in
gender-based violence, and these are the identified shortcomings:
i.

There are no services to assist individuals at risk of engaging in gender-based violence, particularly
those desiring assistance with personal challenges that could serve as precursors to the act;ii.

There are no mechanisms for early detection of red flags. Early detection of problematic behaviour
and mind-sets would aid in the timeous provision of interventions;

iii.

Although there is a strong link between alcohol abuse and gender-based violence, and the country
has a high level of the practice, the country only has one state-owned substance abuse rehabilitation
centre, which only caters to individuals between the ages of 18 and 39. Furthermore, the centre
can only accommodate 80 persons at a time.

IV. CONCLUSION
Because gender-based violence is rooted in gender inequalities, the efforts of the Namibian Government
to address the issue by attending to social structures and gender norms that seem to perpetuate it cannot
be disregarded. However, it goes without saying that the country still needs major improvements across alllevels of society for its efforts to truly be impactful.
A starting point would be the recognition of those in leadership and influential positions of the strengthof their behaviour in encouraging gender-based violence. Also, more effort needs to be pumped into addressing
some of the social ills contributing to gender-based violence, such as the abuse of alcohol and the deep-seatedunderlying factors contributing to it.
Furthermore, instead of just focusing on the provision of services for victims of gender-based violence
after they have already been exposed to such violence, effort should also be concentrated on both preventative
as well as response-related activities that target the perpetrator’s individual risk factors.

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Legal Assistance Centre. (2017). Namibia Gender Analysis 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2019 from: https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/namibia_gender_analysis_2017.pdf
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