Existing measures to protect women and children against violence have proved inadequate, ineffective and, in some cases, biased against the victims. He was opening the Media Training Workshop on Violence Against Women in Maseru, the Basotho capital, on Monday.
Information floating around makes sad reading.
Throughout the SADC region, women's access to land, livestock, credit and other productive resources are limited. Men still predominate at the top of the occupational hierarchy in all countries. All but one country in the region have signed, ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. SADC governments are also all signatories to the region's own Gender and Development Declaration, which has an addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children. The rest have drafts which have remained just that for the past three years.