BOPEU Hosts Panel Discussion Against GBV
Staff Writer | Monday October 26, 2020 16:31
Speaking at the event that was held at the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS), BOPEU president Olefile Fast Monakwe said like the rest of society, “BOPEU is greatly concerned with the ever increasing incidents of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) rocking the country”.
“It is regrettable that the nation continues to lose young productive lives as a direct result of this monster.”
“Sadly, our women, mothers, wives, sisters and most disgusting, our girl-child, are [mostly] on the receiving end of this vice. These women are our family members and our comrades in the BOPEU family,” he lamented.
The panel discussion took a moment of silence to observe the most recent incident involving the shooting and killing of a young woman and another before it of a BOPEU member who was stationed at Parliament, killed in a brutal manner.
Monakwe said the panel discussion was BOPEU member’s opportunity to join the nation to speak out against these disturbing cases in an endeavour to achieve a GBV-free nation in the foreseeable future.
He added it was fitting of BOPEU to hold such a discussion, considering that BOPEU women and youth make a larger part of the trade union’s membership.
Monakwe paid tribute to the women and youth of his movement saying they coordinate the union choir and band.
“They develop BOPEU’s gender-based policies, amongst others.” The panel discussion noted that GBV can manifest itself in many forms such as sexual, emotional psychological, and physical violence, and through harmful traditional practices such as child marriages, socio-economic violence, discrimination and stigma.
The panel noted that violence against women and girl-children is a human rights violation, a universal issue with a great impact on victims, survivors, their families, and the larger communities.
The BOPEU panel discussion also observed that the current crisis of violence against women and children has worsened in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
This is as data shows that since the outbreak, reports of violence against women, and in particular domestic violence, have increased in several countries as security, health, and money worries create tensions and strains accentuated by the cramped and confined living conditions in lockdowns.
More than half of the world’s population was under lockdown conditions by early April.The panel discussion further learnt that since the first lockdown in April, Botswana has recorded about 13,294 cases of GBV and that 79 of those were children who were sexually abused and defiled, while 49 were raped and that of the many is a two-year-old counted amongst them.
Through the discussion, it came to the fore that 58 school-going girls were impregnated during the first lockdown. The panel discussion’s objectives included defining and describing GBV in its humanitarian context. It also recognised the consequences of GBV on women and girls, family members and the wider community, as well as to identifying specific types and the root cause.
Amongst other issues, the panel discussion also deliberated on responses, strategies, and support mechanisms to reduce and respond to incidents of GBV.
It also educated members by offering alternatives to violent behaviour and information about programmes that address GBV. Participants were drawn from BOPEU Women’s Council, union members, and the general public.