Violence Against Women and Criminal Justice in Africa: Volume I, 1st ed. 2022 Legislation, Limitations and Culture Sustainable Development Goals Series

This book examines violence against women in Africa and criminal justice from the perspective of African scholars, practitioners and experts. As a global and long-standing issue, violence against women is gaining public visibility across the African continent with some states announcing a national crisis warranting immediate redress. At the global level, the elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls forms a key part of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. Split across two volumes, these books present a comprehensive analysis of the latest research and theories, principles and practices of criminal justice systems, criminal justice accountability mechanisms, and the key challenges women face in their quest for justice on the African continent. Volume I focusses on legislation and its impact, the limitations of criminal justice responses, and the cultural and social norms regarding access to justice. Volume II examines sexual violence and vulnerable women?s access to justice in Africa. They adopt a comparative approach that highlight gaps and good practices to provide a rich source of authoritative information for promoting an intra-African dialogue and cross-fertilization of ideas across the different criminal justice traditions in Africa. Both volumes seek to advance discussions on eliminating violence against women in Africa and speak to those interested in criminal justice, violence, gender studies and African legal studies.

Chapter One

Introduction (Emma Charlene Lubaale and Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz)

Chapter Two

Violence against women in Africa: A human rights violation necessitating criminal accountability (Emma Charlene Lubaale and Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz)

SECTION TWO: LEGISLATION AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Chapter three

Addressing gender-based violence epidemic through criminal justice: A case study of South Africa and the DRC (Mafuku Tholaine Matadi and Lizelle Ramaccio Calvino)

Chapter four

Access to justice for survivors of violence: A case study of the girl child in Mauritius (Shivani Georgijevic and Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz)

Chapter five

Police capacity building in dealing with domestic violence cases in South Africa: An entry point to women’s access to justice (Mothibi Kholofelo A and  Tirivangasi Happy Mathew)

Chapter six

Access to Justice for sexual violence against women: A socio-legal analysis of case reporting in Kenya (Nelly Warega)

SECTION THREE: LIMITATIONS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSES TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Chapter seven

Sex trafficking as a form of gender-based violence against women: Lessons from South Africa and Uganda (Annette Lansink and Zahara Nampewo)

Chapter eight

Criminal accountability for gender-based violence in North Africa: Beyond legal reforms (Yousra Abourabi and Emma Charlene Lubaale)

Chapter nine

The right to social security as a prerequisite to access to justice for survivors of sexual violence in Zimbabwe (Untalimile Crystal Mokoena)

Chapter ten

Roots Revisited: Barriers to justice for survivors of female genital mutilation in the Gambia (Raeesa Rajmohamed)

Chapter eleven

Access to justice by victims of violence against women and girls in Tanzania: A social legal perspective (Cecilia Ngaiza and Asina A. Omari)

Emma Charlene Lubaale is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law of Rhodes University, South Africa.

Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz is the programme manager of the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa. 

Provides scholarly and practical insights from a wide range of countries across the African continent

Explores the practical challenges of advancing justice for women on the African continent

Speaks directly to UN SDG 5: Gender Equality