MALAWI: 16 Days of Activism Amidst Covid-19 Highlights Access to Justice
Watipaso Mzungu
Malawi is this year observing 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) amidst the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, which heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against girls and women under the localized theme of “Unite to End Gender Based Violence: Prevent, Report, Respond, Fund”.
With the prevalence rates of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and violence against children in Malawi being relatively high compared to the global average, women and girls are at risk of increased violence as a result of Covid-19 due to livelihoods losses coupled with restrictive gender norms and harmful cultural practices that hamper their equal enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms. The vulnerability of women and girls in the socio-economic, political and cultural spheres exacerbates their susceptibility to GBV during the Covid-19 times.
Rural poor and elderly women and girls with different disabilities are even worse off because of the multiple vulnerabilities. These are prone to feel the pangs of GBV more than the other segments of the women population within the Covid-19 context owing to their lack of voice. They are voiceless, hapless and hopeless. Chances of accessing to justice when they encounter abuse, violations or any dehumanizing or degrading treatment cannot even be imagined for they live by fate. The present campaign against GBV should be as inclusive as possible to ensure that marginalized groups of women and girls are not left behind. Inclusion!
Malawi is at more risk due to other significant health challenges that would exacerbate the severity of Covid-19, such as high levels of malnutrition, malaria, anemia, HIV and Aids, and tuberculosis, according to the May 2020 report by the Ministry Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare. During the period, child marriage almost doubled in parts of Malawi during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to figures from a national helpline. This should be a huge human rights and social policy concern to the country.
Care International in Malawi country director, Amos Zaindi, said before Covid-19, around half of all girls in Malawi got married before the age of 18.
“The situation has worsened dramatically as a result of the school closures and rise in poverty linked to the coronavirus outbreak,” Zaindi told The Telegraph recently.
Figures provided to Care International Malawi by Phalombe Youth Friendly Health Services showed that in Phalombe district only, teenage pregnancies in the first half of the year had tripled.
Police data in the district also showed a 400 per cent increase in reports of rape. This entails that the demand for effective justice in light of such gross human rights violations should be high. It is not surprising therefore that the government has put much emphasis on rape and defilement in the observance of this year’s 16 Days of Activism against GBV in the context of Covid-19.
However, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) Gender Programs Coordinator, Chimwemwe Sakunda Ndhlovu, said as Malawi observes the 16 Days of Activism against GBV, it is important that citizens have conversations on the neglected human rights violations suffered by certain segments of the women population. Poor rural women, older women and those with disabilities but living in poorly serviced marginal and remote or hard-to- reach areas should also be a concern.
Sakunda Ndhlovu cited the traumatizing violence women and girls with disabilities face, but can hardly access justice let alone get effective protection safeguards because of their vulnerabilities. “Due to their condition women and girls with disabilities are more vulnerable to GBV than those without disabilities. They face critical challenges facing justice because they mostly depend on others who may be their principal abusers and that they also lack access to justice as the majority of them live in poorly serviced rural areas”, she lamented.
Disability is a factor for social exclusion. According to the 2018 Population and Housing Census (PHC), about 10.4 percent of the population aged five years and older had at least one type of disability, 90 percent of them are found in rural areas.
Of these, 10 percent were males and 11 percent females. Out of the 1, 556, 670 persons with at least one type of difficulty, 49 percent had difficulty seeing, 24 percent had difficulty hearing, 27 percent had difficulty walking/climbing and 9 percent had difficulty in speaking.
She stated that the social isolation measures, dislocated service provision because of the Covid-19 and the attendant economic challenges could mean the loss of social support for people with disabilities who require more care and support. She further warns that if the human rights situation of persons with disabilities in the face of Covid-19 is not researched or monitored then Malawi may not comprehensively address rights violations such as GBV and that the response interventions to the rights threats and violations will remain non-inclusive.
“If Covid-19 awareness messages and campaigns are designed by stakeholders in a way that do not properly consider the needs and situations of those with disabilities, it will increase their risk of exposure to the pandemic. Further, persons with disabilities encounter environmental, institutional and social barriers to accessing public health information, and barriers that make it difficult to make use of public health measures to prevent infection, such as hand-washing and physical distancing,” she said. “It is sad and unfortunate that little is said about the situation of GBV among persons with disabilities in Malawi during critical moments of national conversations like the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV”, she added.
Sakunda Ndhlovu further expressed worry that authorities have paid little attention to unearthing the plight of women and girls with disabilities who are dependent on their care givers and assistants for protection and welfare.
She argued that being a vulnerable group that largely depends on family members without disabilities for their care, protection and welfare, girls and women with disabilities could be potential victims of rape and defilement in the Covid-19 context.
She said the government should therefore come up with deliberate policies and mechanisms for addressing human rights violations in such hidden cases to ensure that the victims get effective justice as access to justice in a fundamental right and essentially the heart of all human rights.
Additionally, she observed that the messaging on GBV and Covid-19 has not been disability inclusive, which has tended to disadvantage women and girls with disabilities.
“And while addressing child marriages and teen pregnancies, one critical question should be how effective justice has been accessed by these girls in light of these gross human rights abuses and violations,” she said. She challenges authorities that it is not enough to rescue girls from early marriages without addressing the underlying criminal elements in numerous cases of child marriages the country has recorded in the Covid-19 period. Justice should prevail in all the cases of child marriage and teen pregnancy that bordered on criminality.
The CCJP also advises government to closely monitor the implementation of the Affordable Input Program (AIP) as the situation thus far point to potential threats to women and girls when accessing the AIP commodities.
The organization notes that the many problems that have characterized the implementation of the AIP put the poor woman farmer susceptible to GBV. The supply problems that have seen beneficiaries spending nights at selling depots or markets make women and girls more vulnerable to all sorts of human rights violations and abuses including SGBV. In fact, there are already reports from some areas about the potential human rights threats female beneficiaries are facing in a bid to access the inputs under the AIP. An undesirable human rights situation that should be checked urgently as various actors put up interventions to combat GBV while Covid-19 continues to dislocate the social fabric and the larger service provision systems including access to justice and protection.
The Minister Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati, admitted that there have been lapses in the Covid-19 response and the access to justice for rape and defilement victims.
However, Kaliati stressed that government is sealing all the loopholes to ensure a holistic approach to the fight against the pandemic as well as access to justice for the victims.
“The challenges we faced in the fight against Covid-19 in 2020 have been a blessing in disguise to the government. Come 2021, we will have a paradigm shift in the way we have delivered messages on risks and prevention measures and available service providers and we will ensure that these services are scaled up and accessible to all people particularly marginalized groups, the persons with various forms of disabilities,” she said.
