Officers Attend Course On Gender-Based Violence

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Monday August 9, 2010 00:00

 

Speaking at a graduation ceremony of a gender-based violence course at International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Otse, class (for the course) representative Thomas Rogers from Sierra Leone said  priorities are given to crimes like, burglary, murder, arson, fraud, and terrorism among others. Little do policy makers realise that most of these offences originate from homes, he added.

Rogers was part of a 26 law group graduating from International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) from across Africa in a week-long course, dubbed 'Policing Gender Based Violence.

The graduates are mainly mid-level African police officers and other criminal justice sector officials, such as judges, prosecutors, and customs or border patrol officers, among others. 

The 26 participants (15 men and 11 women) came from Botswana, Malawi, Seychelles, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Swaziland.

'It will be good for us to sit back and give a minute of our thoughts to certain things that are happening in our societies. If we ask ourselves; why are our children let loose on the streets, why are our daughters sexually abused and become pregnant at a tender age, why are our sisters raped by people that claim to love them, why is HIV/AIDS prevalence  increasing in our communities, why are men more successful than women, do they have powers on their own, or is it that society wants them so? These are questions that need answers,' said Rogers.

He said that States should take the primary responsibility of preventing abuse against women and children by providing a robust legal framework capable of prohibiting all forms of violence against these vulnerable groups.

'Ladies and gentlemen, ILEA and our respective governments have taken the initiative by bringing us together in this beautiful environment and given us the tools that are needed to protect our sisters, mothers, and children. My fellow participants, ILEA through its dedicated and courageous instructors in the persons of Jill Thompson, Supt Christopher. 

Chanda, Kgomotso Thobega and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) tutors, have equipped us with knowledge in terms of victim/witness/perpetrator interview skills, protection of vulnerable witnesses, crime scene visitations and preservation of evidence among others.

It is now our turn to go and implement what we have acquired as we are ambassadors of our respective countries. We must take the guiding principles of abuse as our Bible,' he said at the graduation.

On the other hand, ILEA programme director James Smith said the objectives of the course entail developing and delivering a curriculum addressing the topic of gender-based violence and its implications for the criminal justice sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The course also addressed the legal, cultural, and social as well as enforcement aspects of gender-based violence. 'To foster thoughtful and productive discussion around this sensitive issue, avoiding prescriptive or culturally irrelevant content.

To lead participants in developing an end-of-course deliverable which will be useful to them upon return to their respective countries and to provide measurement and assessment of course impact to ILEA management after close of course,' he said.