Government addresses gender-based violence laws

The Namibian Government plans to tighten the laws on gender-based violence to allow for harsher prison sentences to be passed and to make it easier to secure convictions. However, it admits that the laws are not the main issue. The Justice Ministry's deputy executive director Gladice Pickering told The Namibian that cases of gender-based violence – fuelled by unemployment, alcohol abuse and low self-esteem – are on the rise. At the same time, she noted that legislation is not the problem because ‘Namibia has some of the most progressive laws in southern Africa on violence against women’. The Namibian reports that Pickering said the implementation of the legislation depended on ‘the availability of resources and the correct mindset of the implementers as well as the society’. She added that the legislation would only succeed ‘if it is respected and effectively implemented, with the desired deterrent effects’.