The Protection of Women’s Rights begins with childhood
Urban Townships are in a state of emergency for women, but to solve the crisis of violence we need to look to the experience of childhood in South Africa.
In Diepsloot, a peri-urban township north of Johannesburg, endemic Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) is a pervasive issue. In 2014, 76% of community members indicated that they or someone close to them had been a victim of violence in the home or from an intimate partner, indicating that domestic violence was the most prevalent problem facing their community, followed by rape and other forms of sexual violence (37%). (Lawyers against Violence & Sonke Gender Justice, 2014). Furthermore, a separate study from 2016 strongly suggested a state of emergency for women living in Diepsloot, as more than half of the men recruited for the research said that they had either raped or beaten a woman within the past year (Sonke Gender Justice, 2017, pp. 28).
Ominously, the same study’s results exposed a strong correlation between men’s own prior exposure to violence and consequent use of violence: “men experiencing child abuse were 5 times as likely to use recent violence against women. […] the majority of men interviewed experienced at least one type of physical or sexual childhood abuse. More than one-third had been raped or molested as a child” (ibid). It is therefore crucial that the persistent nature of violence is thoroughly recognized and adequately investigated. If we want to improve safety of women, we must begin with the protection and safety of all children from harm as a matter of priority.
The 2017 Optimus Study on the prevalence of sexual abuse amongst children in South Africa found similar prevalences of lifetime experience of sexual abuse for girls and boys. These data show that boys need as much protection as girls (though their needs are different) – but this fact is something that is only slowly being recognised. Violence in families, whether of children or witnessed by children has serious developmental consequences, and may result in the intergenerational transmission of violent behaviour.
in the world[1]. In addition, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has consistently found that South Africa has among the highest rates of homicide in the world[2]. Violence against children is also widespread, especially violent forms of discipline meted out against children by family members, and educators. Other forms of child abuse, such as neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse, are also reported throughout the country[3].
An influential study, “Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them” by Chicago-based psychologist James Garbarino identifies sets of factors that influence whether a male child will become violent. The first is the accumulation of risk factors in the life of a boy. While one or two risk factors may not diminish the child’s intellectual ability; having three or four, or more, dramatically impacts on the child: “When we put too many burdens on a kid’s shoulders,” explains Garbarino, “he can’t stand up under the weight”. Risk factors include exposure to the violence described above, poverty, absence of a parent, suffering abuse and neglect, drug abuse in a parent, mental illness in a parent, low educational attainment in a parent, child abuse in the family, exposure to racism and large family size.
The second is social assets present in the child’s family, school and community life that nurtures the child to develop emotional resilience. They are diverse, and may include ‘family life provides high level of support’, ‘child goes to church or religious institutions for at least an hour a week’, and ‘young person is optimistic about his/her future’. As with the risks, the more social assets a child has, the better their outcomes. Of the children with zero to 10 of the assets surveyed in the study Garbarino references, 61% were classified as violent (and this statistic proportionally decreases with the number of social assets the child has).
What we do know is that by a very early age, Garbarino argue, the accumulation of risk factors, and the presence of social assets combine with experiences of rejection, spiritual emptiness, and individual temperament to determine the child’s likely outcome in life: “90% of the kids who are put on the pathway that includes abuse, deprivation and oppression develop a chronic pattern of aggression, bad behaviour, acting out and violating others’ rights – behaviours that might meet the diagnostic standard for conduct disorder – by the time they are 10 years old” (Garbarino). Whether they end up as killers, he goes on to argue, depends a lot on “how toxic or benign the culture is around them”.X§
One young man from Diepsloot, speaks poignantly about the pain of exposure to violence from an early age. From childhood, Prime’s experience of manhood was from close male relatives who “constantly abused women”. Not understanding this behaviour Prime lost trust in men, became reserved, withdrawn and lost a lot of confidence. “I did not know what to do and felt helpless. I remember every time I wanted to protect these women I was called names and told I was letting women control me”, said Prime. This confused Prime and he did not know who or what to become.
When Prime was 14, he made a decision to change his life. He enrolled at Afrika Tikkun in Diepsloot, where he met many young people with similar experiences. The previously shy boy started making friends and interacting more with his peers. “When I first came to Afrika Tikkun I thought I was going to be judged, but I have since learnt to be myself which will allows other people to believe in me and in return I have learnt who I am as a person”, said Prime.
Prime is one of 85 child advocates between the ages of 13 and 18 years recently chosen as school-safety youth advocates due to their involvement in their respective schools’ self-advocacy groups which primarily target students with anti-violence and anti-bullying peer support. Within the community, the advocates identified issues such as teenage pregnancy, drugs and alcohol, poverty and inequality as being extremely visible and requiring immediate attention. Most of the advocates agreed that bullying, discrimination, and the consumption of drugs and alcohol were mainly responsible for creating threats to their safety at school. Over a third (33%) of advocates indicated that they had been bullied and experienced discrimination at school. 20% reported fearing going to school due to potential bullying.
There is a need for all members of society, including children who use CBD for anxiety, to be able to participate in holding duty bearers accountable for their protection from harm and social toxicity like the kind that Prime faces. One advocate complained, “I try to stand up for myself but every time I do that people shut me down because they think I am too young to understand my rights”.
Empowering young people with the language and tools to defend their rights and support their peers in this regard is a matter of some urgency if we wish to solve the state of emergency for women in South Africa. We also need to start looking deeper into the roots of the excessive violence against women and girls in South Africa, and remedy it, beginning with teaching parenting skills. Caregivers should be supported to develop warm and caring relationships with their children and monitor them closely. Parents, community members and even influential adults in the life of the child historically have expressed a level of tolerance of violence against children and a reluctance to routinely challenge the widespread culture of silence around child protection issues in the communities. Breaking the silence is a no-brainer.
What is also lacking is the coordination and integration necessary to view this challenge to childhood with a longitudinal cradle to career approach. The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa published a report in 2014 detailing the urgent need for integrated prevention programmes in child protection strategies. Child protection systems in South Africa remain unintegrated and predominantly reactive rather than preventative methods. We strongly recommend a permanent inter-sectoral government structure led by the departments of social development and health to monitor child maltreatment prevention in all sectors and across the child’s lifespan if a safer and more peaceful society is to be achieved for women.
