Mosaic, an NGO specialising in the field of gender-based violence, recently released a short and informative report in which they give feedback on the South African DOVA workshop (download the report here). This document reports on strategic conversations of NGOs working to address the problem of domestic violence in South Africa. According to this report these organisations identified the following as the most urgent challenges currently experienced by domestic violence victims in South Africa:
- “Lack of knowledge and training for South African Police Services (SAPS) members on Domestic Violence;
- Lack of sufficient 24 hour shelter facilities for victims of Domestic Violence; and
- Lack of standardisation/consistency in the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act between SAPS stations”
In the future they hope to investigate the following research question by implementing the DOVA assessment tool in South Africa:
“Lack of consistency in the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act (116 of 1998) and its regulations by the South African Police Services: Domestic Violence Regulations, 1999 (GN R1311 in GG of 5 November 1999)”.
The DOVA assessment is an internationally developed tool, used to assess the extent to which the state is delivering on its obligations in relation to human rights violations caused by domestic violence. According to Mosaic it will enable us to:
- “Gain a better understanding of what is happening in the lives of victims of Domestic Violence;
- Understand the experiences of Domestic Violence victims when attempting to seek assistance and/or report a Domestic Violence matter; and
- Form a conclusion about what the South African government should be doing to ensure that the rights of Domestic Violence victims are upheld at all times”.
Download the report here.
