There needs to be pushback on the rollback on fundamental women’s rights
UK director of education, gender and equality Alicia Herbert.Every eight hours a woman dies at the hands of her intimate partner in South Africa. And in the last year, there was a 52% increase in the number of women murdered across the country, with women in the Eastern Cape experiencing disproportionately higher levels of gender-based violence than anywhere else.
I listened to their stories of how vague legalities around marital status translate into women being denied access to the resources they need to leave abusive relationships, and how a culture of silence around intimate partner violence, alongside a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, extends suffering.
UK support extends beyond the Eastern Cape and so the British high commissioner, Antony Phillipson, will, this month, visit communities we partner with in the Western Cape, and meet grassroots organisations working on the front line to combat violence against women and girls. Despite this, we have also seen a concerning trend emerge; a “rollback” of the fundamental human rights in many parts of the world, where laws and policies protecting equality are being undermined. We have seen an attack on women’s control over their own bodies; an attempt to discourage and prevent women’s participation in public life; and a re-normalisation of sexism.
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