Law To Turn Abusive Spouses Into Tramps Proposed

By Chandapiwa Baputaki
Staff Writer | Monday November 26, 2007 00:00

Presenting the Domestic Violence Bill as a first-ever private member's bill in history of Parliament in Botswana, Kokorwe said the proposed law is necessitated by the cold and hard realities of the present time.

She said realism compels that it must be recognised that domestic relationships are increasingly constituted by cohabitation arrangements.

'Whilst such arrangements may go against the grain of our traditional norms and values, reality compels our recognition of the fact of their existence and their incidence,' Kokorwe said.

District Commissioners and District Officers, the principal arbiters and mediators in conflicts and strife arising from these arrangements, can confirm that these relationships are bedevilled by basically the same problems and tensions attendant upon lawful marriages; domestic violence is an ever present and recurring feature in these relationships.

Kokorwe said the growing failure of people to manage their relationships and has transformed many households from oases of peace, love and security into emotional battlefields.

The Domestic Violence Bill provides for a wide-ranging interpretation of domestic violence, which includes controlling or abusive behaviour that could harm or harms the health or safety of the applicant.

Such behaviour embraces physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional, verbal or psychological abuse, economic abuse, intimidation, harassment and damage to property.
In situations where the applicant and the respondent do not stay together, entry into the applicant's home without his or her consent and unlawful detainment and stalking of the applicant could constitute an offence.

The proposed law defines domestic relationship to mean a relationship between the applicant and the respondent, whether they are married to each other or are cohabiting, a child of the applicant or respondent, their family members or those sharing the same residence with them.

The Bill also provides for the removal of the applicant, a child or the respondent from the residence of the respondent by means of an interim court order and vice versa.

It also provides for the appointment of a specified person to supervise the removal of the personal belongings of the applicant, a child affected or the respondent from the residence in question.

The proposed law empowers the courts and the police to prohibit the respondent from entering the applicant's residence, workplace or communicating with the applicant.

If the Bill becomes law, all this will be done in the presence of court-directed police officers or deputy sheriffs.

The applicant may also benefit from the granting of an occupation order bestowing the right to live - exclusive or non-exclusive - in the residence occupied by or belonging to both of the applicant and the respondent.

But the offending party may be further punished by being ordered to continue paying the rent or mortgage on the house in which he or she is no longer a welcome guest.

'(The Bill) seeks to complement the existing criminal law as contained in the Penal Code by providing civil remedies to enable the survivors of domestic violence to receive and enjoy further continued protection under the law while awaiting the outcome of the trials arising out of their complaints and reports,' Kokorwe said.

It permits restoration of occupancy of the home of the oppressed survivors and offers opportunities for their peace of mind, relief and security provided by the rustification of the offender from the home under restraining orders issued under it.

Kokorwe said the proposed law was not conceived as a superficial formula for solving an intractable problem, 'but it represents a necessary and important foundation block in combating the scourge of domestic violence.'