Gender-Based Violence and Women Rights Violation Report in Central Equatoria State

 Denial of Women engagement and rights

                       Caused

Gender Based Violence and Women Rights Violations

Central Equatoria State –Juba

2011

Introduction

This report is a progressive account of a small policy research on Gender strategic plans implementation for central Equatoria state. The exercise covered six counties of Central Equatoria State. The county Gender officers were the prime target of the study. The study intends to measure the level of county gender officers in executing the state gender strategic plans at their jurisdiction of work. The approach is through the tools of monitoring and evaluation of counties gender officers’ capacities in implementing the state strategic plans. This study was supported financially by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) office in Juba.

Executive Summary

To know the efforts of Central Equatoria state authorities and communities in reaching a point of action for driving towards the three key principles for embracing gender namely;

1. Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination;
2. The integrations and full participation of women in development;
3. An increased contribution by women in the strengthening of world peace

CEPO acknowledged that these principles are not easily   achieved in totality but it is necessary to recognize how much they are localized by the state and the communities for reasonable work towards them.  For practical talks regarding the work towards localization of these principles, CEPO has to undertake a project under funding from Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) for conducting activities as semi policy research on Central Equatoria State Gender strategies. The activities undertaken are directly engaging the county Gender officers on the following activities;

1. Carrying out Gender and women rights awareness raising/sensitization
2. Observing and monitoring of customary courts practices, county Gender officers commitment including their level of knowledge on the state gender plans/strategies
3. Same observation is also done on the police Gender desk

The methodology applied for conducting the activities  mainly comprised of community leaders briefing, public event on Sundays in the church, on Friday in the mosques and market days, conducting focus group discussions and filling of standard checklist for customary court practices. Meanwhile CEPO conducted full observation by using SWOT analysis tool on the county and police Gender officers’   level of commitment via field activities reporting.

The study exercise revealed that less was done by both the county and police gender   officers in increasing the struggle towards reduction of Gender based violence and women rights violation.  The constraints are centered on the following issues;

1. Most of the county Gender officers are not appointed by the government, they are rather   volunteering for positions making them to do things according to their own will.
2. Limited funding  by the county administration for implementing Gender and women rights activities in their budgets because the county authorities view the Gender Unit   as something to be financed International  NGOs   (foreign aid).
3. The police administration   treat the special protection unit (gender desk) as an isolated unit out  of the police service,  this has attributed to a lot of barriers such as special protection unit office building are taken for other purposes and officers engaged in the gender trainings are always transferred from time to time then   consistency  on issues become at stake
4. The special protection units in the police building are not at rights locations, because some of the current buildings are exposing the victims of gender based violence to the society.
5. Both county and police gender desk officers are not informed about the state gender plans/strategies. Therefore no priorities for achievement at their levels.  Further there are lack of information sharing between the special protection unit and the county gender office

The key challenges faced during the study were the issue of county infrastructure which has limited the project outreach to some Payams in the counties. For better future works on gender, CEPO has the following recommendations for deliberations;

1. There is need for the state ministry of social development to adapt a participatory approach for developing the state gender plans/strategies.
2. The ministry of social development needs to work closely with ministry of finance in budgeting and with the state ministry of local government for inclusion of gender activities in the counties’ annual budgets.
3. Capacity building for management of Gender Based Violence and women rights is indispensable for all actors in the area of gender with special focus on police administration in acknowledging the role of gender desk inclusive.
4. There is need for civil society, media and international community to focus on tracking the expenditure on gender for accountability purpose.

Background information

Gender Based Violence and violation of women rights are the key problems in our societies/communities with regard to women issues in six Counties of Central Equatoria state. The government is the first actor obligated to resolve these women issues and constraints in our society and communities. The state government   central Equatoria   through the ministry of social development and child welfare tried to address the problems of women rights and violence against women.   The state strategy for addressing women rights and gender based violence were great if fully executed as planned.

One of the simple tactics for executing these plans is through engaging the county gender officers and the gender desks in the police fully.  The county gender officers and desks are recruited and   the county police gender desks are created both for the purpose of achieving gender objectives. CEPO feels it is important to measure the role of the county gender officers and the police gender desks in the achievement of the state gender objectives. With regard to this concern, CEPO won Norwegian people’s aid Women’s Legal and Human Rights Grant particularly targeting combating violence against women, grant dated January 2011. The project is undertook the followings activities;

1. Gender Based Violence TOT training that forecast on 12 gender desk officers from the 6 counties of Central Equatoria State (Juba, Terekeka, Lainya, Morobo, Kajo-keji and Yei)
2. Facilitation of gender based violence sensitization in the counties for 3 months
3. Monitoring of customary courts in the counties
4. Monitoring and evaluation of the counties gender officers and desks in the counties

Goal: Enhancement of Central Equatoria State gender and women rights strategies implementation

Objectives;

1)      To evaluate how the counties gender officers are engaged in raising awareness on gender as per their training action plans.

2)      To learn about the progress of gender officers’ engagement in the customary courts monitoring in order to identify the related gender issues handled by the traditional courts.

3)      To learn and understand   the community concept   on  GBV issues and their perception and know  what the measures they best would use to address the issues at stake

4)      To monitor the county desk officers in their respective counties

Expected results;

1)      To have slight review on Central Equatoria State gender strategies

2)      To come out with working plans/ recommendations on gender based violence

Activities carried out;

Training of 12 state counties gender officers on gender and women rights sensitization and documentation.

a)      The 12 trained Gender officers were assigned to conduct the following activities ;

b)      Conduct gender and human rights sensitization using the followings tactics

• Community leaders briefing
• Community public event
• Market day briefing

c)      Monitoring of the customary court practices with emphasizes on gender issues, women rights and legal women disputes.

d)     Evaluation of the prisons and police station gender desk as women rights are concerned

e)      Mapping of the customary courts in the counties

f)       While CEPO gender unit has conducted opinion assessment of local government officers on gender mainstreaming in local government administrative units and council

Rationale of the assessment

The primary principles underlying this study were the capacity and commitment of the county gender officers in Central Equatoria state, their roles and duties in combating Gender Based Violence, women rights violations and carrying out sensitization/responsiveness raising on human rights and gender.

The question which encouraged this study was how much are the county gender officers informed about the state strategic plan? This makes Community Empowerment for progress organization-CEPO to intervene in assessing the county gender officers’ level of information about the state gender strategy.

Methodology

Central Equatoria counties gender officers were identified and trained on gender and women rights awareness raising including monitoring of customary court practices and evaluation of the county police gender desks and prison condition in relation to women rights

The trained 12 Central Equatoria State counties gender officers were given the following materials;

a)      Gender and women rights awareness raising guideline Manuel

b)      Standard developed checklists for;

• Monitoring the customary courts practices,
• Evaluation of the police gender desk,
• Mapping customary courts in counties.   Further SWOT analysis was used by CEPO for measure the state gender policy

The counties’ gender officers do render the filled standard checklists to CEPO gender Unit on monthly basis for analysis and drawing findings;

Thematic areas covered are as follow;

• The roles of women and men in society building
• Domestic violence against women
• Rights of  women – bill of rights
• Women and legal disputes mitigation in customary court/ law
• Women and imprisonment

SWOT Analysis

 Why SWOT analysis as study tool for measuring the state gender plans or strategies 

Equating responsiveness and effectiveness of an activity against its gaps, and failure for discovering successes against losing, sustainability against areas that need improvement on the other hand. There is need to have a clear view about the activity strengthen, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to draw reasonable conclusion, in relation to successes, effectiveness, gaps and failures as bases for measuring sustainability and identifying areas of improvements.

RESULTS OF THE SWOT ANALYSIS (County gender officers and County police gender desks view test)

Strengthens	Weaknesses
Advantages of the state gender plan/strategy?•         We (county gender officers) assume that it is focusing on finding durable solutions for gender based violence and  affordable ways for gender mainstreaming in the state affairsInnovative aspects of the state gender plans/strategy?•         Since we are not informed about the state gender plans/strategy, then we have no comments What are your capabilities as county gender officers, police gender desk officer? •         We are well informed about the basic context and content of  Gender based violence and women rights Added value of  gender plans/strategies •         We assume that empowerment of women in every aspect to have balance with men •         We assume equal education of men and women on participatory approach and inclusion in development •         We assume protection of women peace and security	Disadvantages of the state gender plans/strategy?•         We are not well informed about it, so it is hard to draw views on the disadvantagesGaps in the state gender plan development processes•         The process of developing the state gender plans or strategy is not made more participatory  to the county gender officers and the public•         The communities voices for framing the gender plans are not concerned at all•         It is more of donor, initiator and intellectuals  opinion driven Gaps in capabilities as county gender officer and police gender desk officer? •         Limited knowledge and skills on state gender plans or strategy •         Limit understanding within the police on the police gender desk What are your own vulnerabilities? •         Limited self knowledge on the plans reduce commitment for  achieving the results •         Becoming aggressive in office due to low proper capacities, this needs knowledge for accompanying objectives
Opportunities	Threats
What are the interests for the gender plans/strategy further activities?•         We do not have knowledge about the plans and this makes it hard for us   to commentWhat do people say about the gender plans/strategy positively? •         They are not informed about the state plans or strategy , therefore they do not have commentsWhat help have you done to your community using the gender plans/strategy for improving gender situation?•         We have mitigated  several  community legal issues/disputes  in an alternative dispute resolution manner without to court of law •          Have brought some customary /traditional judges to understand violation of women rights and best tactics for mitigating gender based violence	What are the negative aspects of gender plans/strategy that people do speak about?•         They are not informed about the gender plans/strategyWhat are the future challenges that may not allow the state gender plans/strategy to continue?•         Exclusivity of process for developing the state plans or strategy•         None listening to the communities voicesWhat are the things that may prevent the sustainability of the state gender plans/strategy activities •         Poor obligation for the communities’ actors in working for gender mainstreaming right from family to the society •         Limited dissemination of the gender plans to the county gender officer in particular and the public in general

KEY FINDINGS (based on the results of the SWOT analysis)

1-      The state gender strategies

Central Equatoria State has effective gender and women rights plans. The plans execution is the main problem, because of three main reasons identified by CEPO as follow;

1.           I.            The state gender desk officers are not well informed about the state gender and women rights strategies/ plans. This is due to their none involvement during the processes of formulating the state gender and women rights strategies and plans
2.        II.            Limited resources both human and financial  for executing the state gender and women rights  strategies/ plans
3.     III.            Institutional weaknesses in terms of technocrats for executing the strategies/plans ranging from    county up to state level.

2-      County gender desk officers

Through their engagement with CEPO, it was realized that most of the county gender desk officers are volunteers in their county positions. It is only realized in Morobo county that one gender desk officer was appointed under South Sudan public law. In most of the counties, they are not fully recruited as government officers under the public services law. This has reduced their commitment in culture of office work for combating gender and women rights violations and sensitization.

3-      The county administration in gender mainstreaming

In the concept point of view, the counties of Central Equatoria State have slight positive move in mainstreaming gender in their administration and management arenas.  Employment of women in the county offices is good and effective. The only major constraint is the issue of budgeting for gender activities at the counties by the counties’ administrations in their annual county budgets. CEPO noted with high concern that majority of the counties are treating the gender unit as component to be funded by international and United Nations agencies. This has made gender not to be a priority in the county annual budget.

4-      The police and the prison officers’ role in gender

It is clear that the police and prison officers should work on respect of women dignity and rights. Even a female officer being in police or prison service requires sensitization on the respect of women dignity and rights. Noted by CEPO that fellow women in the law enforcement agencies special in the prison authority are worse in unlawful treatment of a woman under their authorities. This is realized as common practices in the counties. Few female officers in the law enforcement agencies are dedicated for the respect of their fellow women dignity and rights in facing the law. Further the conditions of the prisons in the counties are not favorable for women prisoners in several ways. Some women are detained together with their children, the child condition is not taken into account and this makes the woman mentally disturb.

With regard to the special protection unit under the police authorities, the unit is facing challenge from the police criminal investigation department known as CID. The CID views the special protection unit as Non-governmental organization culture of fighting their approaches of investigating crimes. Because the special protection unit is more of human rights and dignity values and hence jeopardizing their investigations approaches.

One valuable aspect about the CID role in the policing services, CID is one of the departments within the police institution that have influential role over the police leadership decision. Therefore the police leadership mainly goes with the advices of the CID

Customary court/law practices

The customary court/law is made of traditions, customs and beliefs in the communities. Most of the customary courts laws are based on the principle of man is the bread winner while a woman is an assistant to man. The customary court/law is used frequently by men to resolve disputes   even involving issues to be addressed by statuary court for the purpose of winning legal disputes resolution against women. Women rights in the customary court/law seem as false claims by women for the sake of avoiding the use of customary law. Among the worst scenario is where the customary court favor men more than women and this is realized in respect to right to ownership.  Ownership in the customary laws of Central Equatoria State counties communities is not clearly defined. Most of the definitions are focused on men dominance as a rule factor of legal disputes. Live example of this is the issue of a woman considered by the customary laws as property of man so she cannot own property of men.  It is common in customary court that the traditional judges use to ask questions such as ‘How come that a property want to own a property’?”

5-      Family and gender

Family role in gender is commonly realized when the unit is distributing the roles of participation between male and female child in the house, and another aspect is the education of the children.   It is realized that families in rural setting give full educational requirements for male-child than female-child and this is so because of traditional thoughts such as educating a girl is educating  for someone’s family one day in the future ( after marriage). This concept is extending to the level of economy. Since the rural economy is mainly male-dominance, the rural economy has become so discriminative to rural woman. This has made the rural so dependent on male. With this factor the rural female has no-voice to speak out their sufferings which was caused by male partner in marriage. Family has effective role in promoting gender and fighting gender-based violence and rights and freedoms violations. Simply, if male can believe and accept that female have same and equal rights and freedoms.

The tendency of gender

It was realized through the study that the tendency of gender means women affairs is high and exists in the minds of the majority members of the society. Evidence to that is always the position of the gender officer is offered to female candidate whether being in non-governmental organization and governmental institutions. Therefore the real meaning of gender as a social relationship between man and woman become weak and narrowly focused.

The common gender based violence identified in the counties

Counties	Types of the gender violations
	RapingAnd harassment and intimidation	Early marriage	Wife beating	Pregnancy outside marriage	Favoritism  of boy to girls	Killing of women /murder /killing attempts	Robbery /theft With focus on woman	Adultery	Child defilement	Child abuse	Forced marriage
Yei
Morobo		[1]
Kajo-keji
Terekeka				[2]							[3]
Lainya
Juba

 

Root causes of GBV;

1.         i.            Harmful cultural practices  and traditions
2.       ii.            Ignorance of women’s rights in education and livelihood
3.     iii.            High bride price  that acts as an obstacle for the voices of women
4.     iv.            High rate of drunkenness or alcohol abuse
5.       v.            Favoritism for boys than girls
6.     vi.            Vulnerability of women in regards to their physical make up
7.   vii.            Limited access to justices in both customary and statuary courts systems
8. Poverty

EFFECTS;

1.         i.            Physical and emotional torture
2.       ii.            Gender inequality-this has extend the gender gap
3.     iii.            Women voices are not heard
4.     iv.            Rural economy become more discriminative towards women
5.       v.            Isolate cases of Human trafficking mainly girls from rural set up and some from northern Uganda  communities
6.     vi.            People were now getting aware of GBV and its effects

Recommendations and way forward

Based on the situation analyses presented, here are some recommendations:

1-      Involvement of the county gender officers during the processes of developing the state gender plans or strategies

Development of the state gender policy, strategy or plan is a creation of women’s platform or agenda for the given period of time, because always such platforms intending to address both strategic gender interests and practices. Further if possible development of the state gender policy, strategies or plans should get the participation of the all women actors in the society ranging from urban to rural set ups.

In the current status of South Sudan women level of education is low,  it is necessary to develop plans that look into women’s agenda, their needs in the simplest way that the least educated women in the rural communities are able to understand and accomplish for the following purposes;

To identify some of the obstacles such as;

1.  I.            Customary, legal, cultural, political and economic obstacles to women advancement in the community
2. Local forms of discrimination against women in all aspects of society
3. Factors that trigger gender based violence, work-place sexual harassment, abuse, intimidation of women in public life in the community
4. The best affordable community tactics for outlawing early, arranged, and forced marriage to allow girls and women to continue education and pursue careers in life

2-      Focus of the counties on gender priorities during their budgeting

Use of government funds for enhancement of gender agenda in the counties need to be more available than pushing financing of gender objectives to foreign aid.   Foreign aid is not a regular source for timely implementation of objectives for making change. Denying budget for gender objectives implementation is another advance constraint for reduction of the gender gap and this attitude attributes to sustains of gender inequalities

3-      Promote effective women’s political engagement in both political parties and leading legislative since political parties and legislative assembly are the gatekeepers to women’s participation in the society.

The women in politics have to take the gender objectives achievement as priority for all. They have to development caucuses that play key role influencing political decision and will for driving gender agenda. The women in the politics have to conduct any lobbying or advocacy with strategy of mobilizing the women and men as pressure group out the politics for cultivating chance for dialogue on gender

4-      Initiation of committed and effective  women’s organization that brings together women from all various roles and duties for common ground for driving gender agenda jointly as one voice and power

1.                 I.            The task of this women’s organization is to develop and promote the women’s agenda.
2.              II.             Articulate the differences between political parties and women’s movement; and address challenges facing women in Central Equatoria state.
3.           III.            Creation of economic activities such as small-credit groups that addresses specific needs of women in urban and rural areas
4.           IV.            Schools at role in promoting an inclusive and gender-sensitive society that respect the rights of girls and women are required

5-      Training of more police gender desk officers on how to deal with issues of gender based violence and women rights.

1.        I.            Police officers that are trained on how to handle gender violence and women rights violations must be sustain in one by the police administration in one location.
2.     II.            There is need to train the police leadership on the importance of the special protection unit( police gender desk) and specially trainings must be done for the police Criminal Investigation Department
3.  III.            Location of the office for the special protection unit should be in isolate place and the building should provide all the necessary requirements for addressing the GBV
4.  IV.            There is a need for the police administration to integrate the gender desk into the operational system of the police services
5.     V.            There is need to sensitize the whole policing services on the importance of the police gender desk in dealing with gender based violence and women legal issues and rights
6.  VI.            There is need to increase coordination between the police gender desk and the county gender desk

6-      Capacity building prioritization on delivery  of gender agenda 

1.     I.            There is need to train  the traditional judges on specific skills for handling gender based violence in the customary courts
2.  II.            There is need for engaging the legislative gender outstanding committee on gender prioritizing in budgeting processes
3. Media and civil society training on making gender agenda realistic at affordable cost is essential including tracking gender budgets expenditure

7-      Rounding conditions that have  negative implication on gender must be taken into account such as;

1.        I.            Mother with child under arrest should be given special consideration with regard to child welfare
2.     II.            Equal fulfillment of educational requirement ranging from time allocation for study up to schooling materials between girl and boy student be with compromise

8-      Women peace and security

1.        I.            There is need to enact gender law in South Sudan for the interest of gender equality and equity in the society for providing women peace and security
2.     II.            Orientation of the law enforcement agencies on how to handling and protect women from Gender based violence and rights violation is paramount
3.  III.            Insertion of United Nation resolution 1325 indicators into policies and program strategies for ensuring women protection

9-      Man-gender strategy

I.      There is a need to engage man fully in gender mainstreaming and in finding solutions for addressing gender based violence and violation of women rights

II.      There is a need to critical focus on engaging couples in gender sensitization and awareness raising specifically in the rural communities

III.      There is need to change the knowledge, attitudes and practices ( KAP) of the society members in relation to gender mainstreaming

Conclusion

This project has drawn CEPO attention for doubling efforts on working in the areas of gender based violence and women rights more constructively. Through the project activities, CEPO realized that much need to be done in addressing the gender based violence and women rights violations.

State gender policy development requires participation of all actors that will have role and responsibilities for execution of gender policy right from the stage of facilitating gender trainings, sensitization, lobbying and advocacy in Central Equatoria State counties.

For realization of the identified recommendations, CEPO will conduct stakeholders meetings to discuss the best mechanisms for the implementation of the recommendations. On the other hand this project has strengthened CEPO’s gender centre focus on priorities that are achievable than unrealistic ones. CEPO will be using these project findings for designing next year gender and women rights plans.

Annex: CEPO

Who is CEPO?: Community Empowerment for Progress Organization-CEPO is South Sudan civil society organization registered by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development in Republic of South Sudan. CEPO is engaged in the areas of conflict mitigation, peace, human rights, and rule of law, governance, democratic transformation and livelihood.

CEPO Mission:  Strengthening and Promoting the capacity and capability of society members on peace building, security reform, culture of human rights, protection, democratic principles and livelihood.

CEPO Mission Messages/Expected results (mandate):

1.      Secure and peaceful society

2.      Self-reliant society

3.      Obeying and honoring rule of law and protection

4.      Responsive security society

CEPO Vision: Building capacity and capability of society members on development through self-reliance and genuine interventions

CEPO Core Values:

1.      Commitment, Accountability  and Transparency (CAT)

2.      Non- partisanship

3.      Devolution of power and Delegation ( Decentralized administration and management )

Goal: Focuses on participation of all society members in development as a complement to their government and other stakeholders role

Objectives:

1.      To promote community members interaction with the security organs in order to achieve suitable secure society

2.      To promote effective and strengthen community members engagement in peace building, human rights and protection

3.      To involve community members in economical and agricultural projects

4.      To bring the process of policy development in the legislature too close to the members of the society

5.      To make policy development processes more participatory for institutionalizing accountability and transparency of governance and leadership

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Contacts Email: ceposudan@yahoo.co.uk, ceposouthsudan@gmail.com info@ceposouthsudan.com   Website: www.ceposouthsudan.org

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