THE criminal justice system needs to do more to protect women and to deal with social and political issues affecting women living in abusive conditions, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said this week.
"Failure to do so makes the system an equal perpetrator of injustice," she said at the South African launch of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign on no Violence Against Women and Children.
The continued treatment of abuse cases as private matters that the state could not intervene in was not only grossly unfair to women, but also against the spirit and letter of the law, Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The criminal justice system's ministries would continue to work with other partners to ensure that lasting solutions are found to the problem of the domination of women, "the oldest and most widespread form of oppression globally", she said.
The systematic and institutional arrangements perpetuating women oppression must be removed, the minister said.
"We will have to accelerate our programmes aimed at ensuring that women have equal access to education, opportunities and resources in order to ensure empowerment and contribution by women in the development of our country.
"Structural, social and cultural changes need to happen for there to be improved justice in relation to issues of gender and crime," Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The past decade had seen a significant increase in the number of women incarcerated. Currently, women represented about two percent of the offender population in both the sentenced and remand detention categories.
"For the system of corrections and the criminal justice as a whole, this increase has meant that we need to think seriously about the issues affecting women who are in conflict with the law," she said.
Independent research had shown that a growing number of women in correctional centres were either convicted for economic or for violent crimes, such as murder. Both categories could be directly attributed to the standing of women in society and the difficult choices they had to make to survive - choices that might have landed them into criminality.
Research indicated that the majority of spousal killings took place in instances where women were subjected to long periods of physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and financial abuse.
The minister said her department was focusing on how inmates could play a role in educating other women about the dangers of staying in abusive relationships.
"The message that government and society needs to send jointly is: 'Don't wait until it is too late'.
"It is better to leave an abusive relationship or marriage than to stay until you are killed or you kill and end up in prison," she said.
The department is also concerned about the conditions under which women are incarcerated. A task team that had been auditing various categories of offenders and conditions in centres, had just completed its visits to all facilities and would give a final report at the end of December.
However, various preliminary reports showed that a lot had to be done to improve the conditions under which women were incarcerated. Facilities are unsuited for the specific needs of women. They were not designed with women in mind and this needed to be dealt with, she said
"We have decided that dedicated facilities that cater for women should be created in the current facilities and that all new facilities should include such dedicated sections catering for women offenders," she said.
The origins of the global campaign lie in the marking of November 25 1960 as the day when three sisters from the Dominican Republic - Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal - were killed for opposing the activities of Rafael Trujillo's regime.
In 1991, women's groups decided to dedicate a longer period of time to highlight violence against women.
Government must protect women
THE criminal justice system needs to do more to protect women and to deal with social and political issues affecting women living in abusive conditions, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said this week.
"Failure to do so makes the system an equal perpetrator of injustice," she said at the South African launch of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign on no Violence Against Women and Children.
The continued treatment of abuse cases as private matters that the state could not intervene in was not only grossly unfair to women, but also against the spirit and letter of the law, Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The criminal justice system's ministries would continue to work with other partners to ensure that lasting solutions are found to the problem of the domination of women, "the oldest and most widespread form of oppression globally", she said.
The systematic and institutional arrangements perpetuating women oppression must be removed, the minister said.
"We will have to accelerate our programmes aimed at ensuring that women have equal access to education, opportunities and resources in order to ensure empowerment and contribution by women in the development of our country.
"Structural, social and cultural changes need to happen for there to be improved justice in relation to issues of gender and crime," Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The past decade had seen a significant increase in the number of women incarcerated. Currently, women represented about two percent of the offender population in both the sentenced and remand detention categories.
"For the system of corrections and the criminal justice as a whole, this increase has meant that we need to think seriously about the issues affecting women who are in conflict with the law," she said.
Independent research had shown that a growing number of women in correctional centres were either convicted for economic or for violent crimes, such as murder. Both categories could be directly attributed to the standing of women in society and the difficult choices they had to make to survive - choices that might have landed them into criminality.
Research indicated that the majority of spousal killings took place in instances where women were subjected to long periods of physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and financial abuse.
The minister said her department was focusing on how inmates could play a role in educating other women about the dangers of staying in abusive relationships.
"The message that government and society needs to send jointly is: 'Don't wait until it is too late'.
"It is better to leave an abusive relationship or marriage than to stay until you are killed or you kill and end up in prison," she said.
The department is also concerned about the conditions under which women are incarcerated. A task team that had been auditing various categories of offenders and conditions in centres, had just completed its visits to all facilities and would give a final report at the end of December.
However, various preliminary reports showed that a lot had to be done to improve the conditions under which women were incarcerated. Facilities are unsuited for the specific needs of women. They were not designed with women in mind and this needed to be dealt with, she said
"We have decided that dedicated facilities that cater for women should be created in the current facilities and that all new facilities should include such dedicated sections catering for women offenders," she said.
The origins of the global campaign lie in the marking of November 25 1960 as the day when three sisters from the Dominican Republic - Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal - were killed for opposing the activities of Rafael Trujillo's regime.
In 1991, women's groups decided to dedicate a longer period of time to highlight violence against women.
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