Funded by: UBS Optimus Foundation

Project Contact: Kelley Moult

There is extensive evidence showing that South African children experience high levels of victimisation both in their domestic and school environments. However, there is currently no specialised programme being implemented in South African schools, which has as its primary objective education and awareness around sexual and domestic violence. While there are some existing NGO interventions that bringing awareness to students around issues of HIV/AIDS and sexual abuse, little is known about the extent to which these, mainly ad hoc pilot programmes, have achieved their objectives.

This 18-month  project aims to remedy this gap. It uses a multi-disciplinary approach, and brings together the perspectives and experiences of different role-players to improve education and awareness around gender-based violence among learners. The goals of the project are:

1. To examine the extent to which programmes focusing on sexual and domestic violence are being implemented in schools in the Western Cape;
2. To evaluate the effectiveness of such programmes i.e. investigating levels of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions about these issues among learners and educators; and
3. To design a pilot programme which addresses issues of sexual and domestic violence holistically-with grade-appropriate materials and interventions.

Funded by: Ford Foundation

Project Contact: Yoni Hoffman-Wanderer

South African Parliament has passed several laws to ensure children’s rights to sexual and reproductive health care. This includes the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, the National Health Act, the Children’s Act and the Sexual Offences Act. While these laws are impressive on paper, their practical application is problematic for health care professionals. Most significantly, the laws do not ‘speak to each other’ and are, at times, inconsistent. Just one example is the clash between a child’s statutory right to confidentiality under the National Health Act, the right to receive contraceptives from the age of 12 under the Children’s Act and the obligation to report certain sexual acts, including consensual sex between teenagers, to the police under the Sexual Offences Act. According to these laws, health care professionals now have three duties when, for example, a 15-year-old patient approaches them for contraceptives: (a) to protect patient confidentiality; (b) to hand out contraceptives; and (c) to report the child to the police for engaging in illegal sex. How, then, can health care practitioners provide confidential reproductive health care services while they are simultaneously required to report the teenage patient to the police? This conflict of interest may not only have immediate effects for the individual patient and the doctor-patient relationship, but it may also have negative long-term consequences for teenagers’ health outcomes (i.e., teenage pregnancy and HIV prevention). Should mandatory reporting of consensual sex between adolescents be applied consistently, we may find reporting – and the fear of breaches of confidentiality – deterring young people from using reproductive health care services.

Funded by: European Union

Project Contact: Lillian Artz

The Article 5 Initiative is a partnership between the University of Cape Town (Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit), University of the Western Cape (Community Law Centre), University of Bristol (Human Rights Implementation Centre) and the African Policing Civil Oversight Forum (APCOF). The Initiative aims to support African institutions to improve domestic compliance with international law obligations, norms and procedures under the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT) and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). The Article 5 Initiative focuses on six post-conflict African countries namely Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.  These countries have made varied progress in relation to the strengthening of the rule of law, the development of good governance and oversight structures, and basic criminal justice reform aimed at promoting access to justice.

The Article 5 Initiative will develop and institutionalise an integrated Domestication and Implementation Package (DIP) of practical, context-specific norms and guidelines, which can be used by relevant mechanisms of the African human rights system and national actors to strengthen the implementation of standards aimed at preventing and eradicating torture and other ill treatment in Africa.

The Article 5 Initiative seeks to achieve its aims through three main methods:

• Research and development of comprehensive baseline studies on measures taken and implemented to give effect to obligations under the UNCAT (and OPCAT if applicable) within the target countries. This will lay the foundation for the subsequent outputs.
  
  
• Developing a Domestication and Implementation Package (DIP) for each target country consisting of guidance notes, guidelines, checklists and reporting tools for stakeholders. These will be used to establish momentum and coherence on what the priorities are, what is achievable and what is compliant with UNCAT under existing domestic conditions in each target country.
  
  
• Interaction and cooperation with the ACHPR (supported by states, NHRI, and civil society)

Funded by: Open Society Foundation for South Africa

Project Contact: Kelley Moult

The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act passed in December 2007 reforms the past sexual offences law by redefining existing sexual offences such as rape and indecent assault, by introducing a number of new crimes and by creating new services for victims such as the provision of PEP and compulsory HIV testing of the alleged offender(s). The question is whether these substantive shifts in law will, in fact, reduce secondary victimisation of victims which is one of the objectives of the Act. The GHJRU together with RAPCAN, Simelela, PATCH and Rape Crisis Cape Town has been monitoring whether the Act has made any difference in criminal justice practice, particularly where the Act is reliant on procedures that have always existed within the Criminal Procedure Act. We look forward to the publication of these findings in the South African Journal of Human Rights in 2012.

Funded by: British Academy

Project Contact: Lillian Artz

This project involves comparative socio-legal research on the prosecution of sexual offences in South African and the UK. This partnership will assess the impact of UK’s (2003) and South Africa’s (2007) legislation, specifically examining medico-legal outcomes, evidentiary and procedural issues as well as the administrative and ‘socio-cultural’ climate of courts prosecuting sexual offences cases. The project is specifically structured to accommodate post-graduate students from both countries with the aim of developing cross-cultural exchanges and developing empirical research capacity of both law and social science post-graduates specialising in sexual offences. It also aims to publish high quality international research publications focusing on comparative law and justice in relation to sexual offences. This project is being done in partnership with Dr Maggie Wykes from the Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law, University of Sheffield.

This study presents the characteristics of men referred for a psychiatric assessment by the multidisciplinary team at Valkenberg Hospital following a charge of murder of their intimate female partner. The findings of this 10 year retrospective study will form the basis of a future study to follow up men who physically abuse their partners to determine whether these factors remain predictive for femicide. All men accused of killing their intimate partners, who were admitted to the Forensic Mental Health Service at Valkenberg Hospital for a 30-day observation from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2009 were included in the study. In addition to the clinical and forensic psychiatric evaluations data on risk factors present in the perpetrator (such as whether he had experienced child abuse and displayed conduct disorder in his youth or had a psychiatric or criminal history), the nature of his relationship with the deceased, antecedents and circumstances of the femicide are elicited. Diagnoses are based on DSM IV criteria. This study is being conducted with Prof Sean Kaliski of the Department of Psychiatry at UCT. Prof Kaliski is a forensic psychiatrist that works for Forensic Mental Health Services at Valkenberg Hospital.

Domestic violence is widespread and affects more South Africans than any other form of interpersonal violence. The consequences of this violence are immeasurable, but significant. Social workers bring a wide range of skills that may assist in protecting survivors and in addressing some of the risks that give rise to violence in the home. However, social workers are not typically among the first responders in cases of domestic violence and their experiences and training have been shaped by extremely limiting local practices. Moreover, interventions in relation to domestic violence matters are neither prescribed by the social work profession nor are they systematic in practice.

While social workers (both state and non-governmental) do assist victims of domestic violence in a variety of arenas - including emergency rooms and courts - the extent of assistance offered is often limited by resources, high caseloads and, of late, the prioritisation of child sexual offences cases. In practice, it is the police that are tasked with responding to domestic violence complaints. However, they are not specifically trained to recognise or to respond to the full spectrum of situations that may arise. Their capacity is also limited by other competing crime prevention priorities. It has also been shown that despite the introduction of the Domestic Violence Act in 1998 the criminal justice system  has not changed dramatically in the way it responds to or processes complaints of domestic violence. Criminal justice personnel continue to operate under radically under-resourced conditions and have not been equipped to deal with the complex, repetitive and pervasive nature of domestic violence.

This project aims ultimately to train and capacitate a cohort of social workers (‘violence interrupters’) to detect and provide an informed and holistic primary prevention response to domestic violence as well as some of the major risk factors and antecedents in the South African context. We propose conducting a mixed-method systematic review describing best practices (a) for early detection and primary prevention responses to domestic violence by social workers; and (b) inter-agency co-operation across police, health and social services with special reference to screening and early detection and response. The outcomes of the systematic review are three-fold:

(i) a review of international, inter-agency domestic violence prevention/intervention training programmes, adapted for the South African context
(ii) the establishment of core curricula for the training of specialised social workers within the South African context; and
(iii) capacity building/ knowledge of post-graduate students in the area of domestic violence interventions in social work practice.

The project team will also prepare a full proposal for the development, implementation and monitoring of a specialised programme for domestic violence social workers/violence interrupters by drawing on the findings of the systematic review and a number of engagement activities. These include:

(a) the presentation of the competency-based framework that emerges from the review to social workers in practice (earning CPD points), with a view to encouraging feedback on the framework’s relevance and feasibility;
(b) a workshop aimed at the further development of the proposed curriculum in consultation with interested parties within the UCT community, social work practitioners (state and private) currently focusing on domestic violence, relevant state representatives (for instance, DSD and SAPS) as well as advocacy and counseling specialists in the area of domestic violence; and
(c) consultation with key stakeholders in other tertiary institutions with an interest in the competency-based framework and the development of a specialised curriculum in social work/violence interruption.

Research is also currently being undertaken or has been completed on the following areas in relation to sexual offences and domestic violence:

The Pathways Project addresses the dearth of information on how and why women in South Africa come to be involved in crime and, in some cases, to be incarcerated. This research project is motivated by concern for the self-actualisation [social advancement] of women in general and that of incarcerated women in particular.  Some 3,700 women in South Africa are locked up in prisons and jails, completely dependent upon the institution to provide them with the basic necessities for life.  Nearly all of these women are either Black (71%) or Coloured (19%) women of reproductive age. They are incarcerated most often for economic crimes (44%) or aggressive crimes (41%), followed by narcotics offences (8%) and other offences (8%).  Around one-third are detainees who are awaiting trial.

Although the number of women in prison in South Africa is relatively low, the impact of their incarceration, particularly on their children, extended families and communities is considerable. Around the world, women are vital members of families, communities, and economies. In South Africa, as elsewhere, women are not only mothers, wives, and girlfriends but also household managers, breadwinners, and the ones who care for sick people, children and the elderly. Women’s experience of prison and their prospects for rehabilitation and successful reintegration into society are shaped by the social and economic well-being of other members of their households, and the degree to which they are able to maintain relationships and responsibilities while incarcerated.

The Pathways Project consists of pre-interview activities and interviews with approximately 60 women incarcerated in Pollsmoor and Worcester Correctional Centres in the Western Cape, SA. The project is being undetaken over an 18-month period; divided roughly into a year of preparation and data collection, and six months of analysis and reporting of the findings. The stories women tell will help to identify risk factors and important turning points and buffers in women’s lives. These will help us to understand how and why poverty, violence and other household dynamics may lead to certain patterns of offending and pathways to crime and assist in designing appropriate interventions to reduce female offending. By understanding the conditions of the most marginalised and oppressed members of a society, and evaluating policy and programs in light of their impact on these members, we can arrive at more effective and humane responses to crime and poverty.

The GHJRU and select representatives from affiliated NGOs, the NPA, and the Law Faculty at UCT have written and contributed to the editing of a legal Commentary on the Sexual Offences Act. The Commentary has been published by JUTA. The Commentary serves primarily as a handbook for practitioners (magistrates, prosecutors, police officers etc.) who must apply the statutes and directives of the Sexual Offences Act to individual cases in their daily work. The Commentary is a tool for practitioners to understand how the law on sexual offences has been applied in the past and how this will be changed by the new legislation.

Our previous research on the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act [DVA] shows that there are critical attrition points in the criminal justice system where cases of domestic violence simply “fall out”. This research explores the unchartered terrain of “case attrition” using court files, police dockets and interviews with complainants (victims of domestic violence) to establish what these attrition points are and why it happens. The research was conducted with MOSAIC (a service provider specialising in victim assistance programmes at 11 courts in the Western Cape) and has both qualitative and quantitative features. To date over 800 women have been interviewed about their reasons for retracting from the criminal justice system. The findings from 500 of these interviews can be found in the publication Reluctance, Retaliation and Repudiation: The Attrition of Domestic Violence Cases in Eight Magisterial Districts by Lillian Artz and Diane Jefthas.

The high levels of HIV in South Africa linked with the high incidence of rape and other sexual offences create a dangerous nexus. In addition to other traumatising consequences, many victims of sexual offences face a significant risk of being exposed to HIV. This has been addressed by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences & Related Matters) Amendment Act of 2007, which gives sexual offence survivors the right to receive post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). This preventative antiretroviral treatment is to be provided at designated public health establishments at State expense.

Given that the drugs are most effective when taken within a few hours of exposure to HIV, at the very latest within 72 hours, it is crucial that rape survivors receive swift and accurate information from police and health care workers on when, where and how they can access PEP and other emergency health services. The law therefore clearly sets out duties for police officials and health care workers on how to assist rape survivors to receive the treatment.

This project will evaluate whether rape survivors’ experience any institutional barriers when they are trying to access PEP (e.g., police and health care workers’ lack of knowledge of their responsibilities under the Sexual Offences Act). The study will use a number of methods including telephone surveys and in-depth interviews with health care workers and members of the SAPS. We also aim to cooperate with service providers from different provinces to explore rape survivors’ experiences in accessing PEP.

This project evaluates how policy adaptation and the use of discretion by court clerks affects the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, and the implications that this has for the rights of complainants in domestic violence cases. Data was collected through policy analysis, case file review, in-depth interviews and observation. Fieldwork was conducted at three courts in the Western Cape: Atlantis, Bellville and Khayelitsha.

For the past twelve years activists in South Africa have been intensively engaged in a process aimed at reforming South Africa’s laws on sexual offences. Since 1996 that activism has focused on the South African Law Reform Commission’s investigation into sexual offences, which culminated at the end of 2007 as the Criminal Law (sexual and related matters) Amendment Act.

South Africa is uniquely positioned to inform rape law reform efforts in both the North and the South. We have fielded many enquiries from those involved in nascent rape law reform efforts in Africa and South East Asia, as well as activists in countries such as the United States and England who are attempting to improve on the implementation of earlier reform efforts. We have therefore identifed these challenges and are developing a well considered literature review to inform the evolving South African jurisprudence on sexual offences.

We are currently producing an edited volume that will reflect on South Africa’s experience with rape law reform, highlighting successes, failures and challenges going forward. Each chapter will track a specific aspect of rape law reform:

The book provides an important reflection on the engagement of civil society with government in precipitating and sustaining this important law reform process, and will include topics such as:

Police are often the first point of contact for a victim of rape or other sexual violence. With the introduction of the new Sexual Offences Act, police officers are required to provide additional services to victims of sexual violence such as compulsory HIV testing of the alleged offender. Given that compulsory HIV testing on the request of the victim is a completely new service, it is necessary that police officers are comfortable with the application of the relevant statutory provisions as well as the corresponding directives and national instructions.

The GHJRU will undertake comprehensive training of individual police officers on the new provisions on compulsory HIV testing and related matters such as post-exposure prophylaxis for victims of sexual violence. The workshops will also focus on general policing practices around sexual offences and other matters regarding sensitive treatment of victims. This education programme fulfils a broader aim of the GHJRU to prevent secondary victimisation of survivors of sexual violence by ensuring a sensitive and responsive legal and medical process.

In partnership with the Community Law Centre (UWC), the Unit undertook a study in the Eastern Cape referred to as the Domestic Violence Act Compliance Monitoring Survey, a joint project between the South African Police Service and the European Union. Working at 29 police stations across the province, the study involved the analysis of some 1500 police dockets, 1200 domestic violence register forms, 150 interviews with police members and the analysis of 100 files at Children’s Courts. This study is the largest and most comprehensive study on the implementation of the DVA in South Africa to date and was given an ‘excellence’ rating by the SAPS/EU project managing team. It will be repeated in the same province in three years time to monitor progress of policing practices in relation to this Act and the service provision duties imposed by it.

Our research has shown that substantial numbers of rape complaints are withdrawn by complainants at both police and prosecutorial level. These role-players point to three major, and no doubt inter-related, factors: the prevalence of false rape complaints, the payment of financial compensation to victims, whether through “customary” dispute resolution or through pay-offs by gangs, and intimidation. The validity of these claims has important implications for programmatic interventions into “rape prone” communities, and for increased understanding of criminal justice responses to sexual offences in South Africa. Through this research we seek to develop a better understanding of rape victims’ interaction with the criminal justice system and their motivations in making decisions about that engagement, including the specific factors that make a case more likely to be withdrawn, as well as the systemic problems that militate against the conclusion of these cases in court.

The Unit was commissioned to develop a comprehensive range of crime prevention monitoring indicators for youth and youth at risk by the Alliance for Crime Prevention. The purpose of the crime prevention indicators was to provide crime prevention and youth practitioners with a range of potential factors that may influence or impact on the outcomes of crime prevention programmes. The development of the indicators included the analysis of risk factors and resilience factors for youth, examples of youth crime prevention and intervention programmes and additional contextual information on the assumptions, theories or challenges of the indicators developed. The indicators were developed to address 5 areas or levels of youth risk and resilience: for individual, interpersonal/lifestyle, institutional/organisational, community norms and physical environment and social structure and policy.

The Unit was Commissioned by the Child Justice Alliance to develop monitoring indicators and research instruments to monitor the implementation of the Child Justice Bill. In addition to providing the Alliance with a comprehensive list of monitoring indicators, the Unit developed research instruments such as interview schedules and templates for analysing police charge sheets and dockets, probation officers reports and for observing court.

Over the past few years the university community has seen an increasing level of sexual assault and rape within the campus community. The Unit has conducted extensive research into rape and sexual assault policies in tertiary institutions around the world for comparative purposes and is assisting the University in development a rape management protocol. The main objective of the project is to draft a policy which is victim-centered and affords victims of sexual offences – either staff or students – a comprehensive response including medical treatment, counselling, protective measures, assistance with the formal criminal justice system and the possibility of disciplinary action against the perpetrator. The protocol is unprecedented in South Africa and we intend on sharing the protocol with other tertiary institutions to assist them with developing appropriate protective measures and supportive remedies for victims of sexual assault on campuses in South Africa.

In conjunction with the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit (Faculty of Law, UCT) the Unit undertook extensive research work on sexual offences and HIV/AIDS. This has involved both legal research and programme development to train magistrates on the appropriate management of sexual assault cases which involve the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Additional elements of this collaborative work have included:

In 2007 & 2008 the Unit partnered with the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit in the Faculty of Law at UCT to develop research and training materials for magistrates in the area of HIV and the law.

Violence against women and HIV/AIDS are two of the most important and intractable social problems facing our country. Inevitably magistrates and other criminal justice role players are faced with cases in which these to issues intersect. In a context where the criminal justice system is already struggling to cope with the numbers and complexities of sexual offences cases, HIV/AIDS adds a layer of additional complexity, requiring specialised knowledge in respect of the epidemiology of this pandemic, an understanding of the social context in which these issues intersect, and the ways in which public health imperatives and legal responses can and should combine in response to this problem. Research and interventions in relation to this intersection have to date been largely ad hoc and none have addressed the specific challenges facing magistrates in adjudicating sexual assault cases where the perpetrator and/or victim are HIV positive. As a result our knowledge of the particular challenges facing criminal justice personnel in this area is inadequate. This project reflects a novel attempt to begin exploring these challenges, build knowledge in this area and develop targeted interventions aimed specifically at magistrates.

Until now there was little research available pertaining to the impact of HIV status on the adjudication of sexual assault cases. This project was therefore exploratory and incorporated and addressed the experiences and concerns of magistrates. There were a number of key areas that were identified by magistrates as posing problems in the management and adjudication of sexual assault cases. These include intersections between HIV/AIDS and sexual violence, the relevance of the victim and/or perpetrator’s HIV status on decisions relating to sentencing, issues associated with compulsory testing of perpetrators for HIV and disclosure to the victim, disclosure, competent charges and procedures in respect of harmful HIV-related sexual conduct and the competency of magistrates to make specific orders relating to testing, treatment and notification in relation to HIV/AIDS following a sexual assault.

At the same time we partnered with LRG to complete their manual on HIV and the Law for Magistrates, where we are focused on issues of privacy and confidentiality, crimen injuria, gender-based violence and bail. With the financial support of the Ford Foundation, the GHJRU and LRG have developed training materials that consolidate existing knowledge on the relevant evidentiary, procedural and case management issues raised by magistrates in relation to sexual offences and HIV/AIDS. The training materials are based upon a substantial body of existing research generated by the Gender, Health & Justice Research Unit, the Western Cape Sexual Offences Working Group, LRG, and others working in the specialised field of sexual assault.

With the support, assistance and ongoing encouragement of the Open Society Foundation, the GHJRU, as part of the Consortium on Violence Against Women, conducted research and published a range of research reports dealing with the criminal justice and public health sector responses to domestic violence. The following reports were published:

• Monitoring the Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. First Research Report 2000-2001
• Implementation of Bail Legislation in Sexual Assault Cases. First Research Report 2000-2002
• Implementation of Bail in Legislation in Sexual Assault Cases. First Research Report 2000-2002
• Bail in Sexual Assault Cases: Victim’s Experiences. Second Research Report 2002-2003
• Magistrates and the Domestic Violence Act: Issues of Interpretation
• Domestic Violence and Development: Looking at the Farming Context
• Screening for Domestic Violence: A policy and Management Framework for the Health Sector
• A Toolkit for Monitoring Legislation
• Domestic Violence and HIV/AIDS. An area for urgent intervention

Full citations and pdf files (for selected reports) are available here on our publications page

To view these reports

In South Africa, 1500 women are killed each year by their intimate partners. In a recent study Matthews et al. (2004) found that not only does South Africa have one of the highest rates of death of women by their abusive partners in the world, but that the murder of women by intimate partners accounts for almost 50% of all female homicides. Similarly the Crime Information Analysis Centre of the South African Police Service provides statistics which show that South Africa has a staggeringly high rate of homicide. Last year 19 824 homicides were reported, of which 2 839 were in the Western Cape. This brings the ratio of homicides per one hundred thousand people to 43:100 000 nationally and 60:100 000 in the Western Cape.

The clinical, mental health, forensic and legal outcomes of domestic homicide, however, is not only under-researched in South Africa but exerts an enormous strain on our public health and criminal justice resources. Not much is known about who kills South African women and under what circumstances. Men who have killed their intimate partners are frequently referred to the forensic psychiatry unit at Valkenberg Hospital for a 30-day psychiatric observation. Usually these accused claim that they were not responsible for their actions because they were suffering from ‘non-pathological incapacity’ at the time.  Over the past 5 years this unit has assessed over 60 cases of men that have killed their intimate partners. 

A multi-disciplinary research team – which includes the Unit, the Department of Psychiatry (UCT) and the Division of Forensic Medicine (UCT) are embarking on the development of inter-disciplinary theories on domestic homicide in the South African context, in preparation for the first, interdisciplinary retrospective and prospective study on domestic homicide. In this first stage of the study, the research team will analyse data already collected on approximately 60 cases that have been referred to the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health (Forensic Psychiatry Unit) over the past 5 years.

Unfortunately the psychiatric and forensic pathology assessments are always conducted separately, and seldom are the post-mortem findings reconciled with the accounts provided by the perpetrators. This study will attempt to reconcile post mortem findings with accounts given by the accused. Against this background, the research partners have joined to design a study that incorporates the analytical perspectives and research methods from the intellectual domains of psychiatry and mental health, law and criminal justice, and forensic medicine.

Through collaboration with the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Division at UCT, two visiting nursing students, Jeane Garcia and Claudine Hennessey, from Johns Hopkins University (Maryland, US), are assisting Dr. Lorna Martin, Head of Division and Chief Specialist on a Rape Homicide Project. Focused on the epidemiology, demographic, and patterns of injury associated with violence against women in the Western Cape, the project is another retrospective study to follow up and compare with Dr. Martin's original data from July 1996 through December 1998. This current study will specifically examine the incidence and context of female rape homicide in the Western Cape served by the Salt River Mortuary (SRM) from the period of January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2005. The team is currently reviewing post mortem reports, communicating with investigating officers in charge of the incidents, and analyzing the data collected. Ultimately, the project team aims to provide recommendations for improved autopsy practices, police reporting at crime scenes, identification of areas and behaviors of risk, and quality interventions to prevent and assess for potential victims of sexual assault and rape homicide.