South Africa: National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill has been approved by Cabinet
In September 2022, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth & Persons with Disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane announced that the National Council on Gender-based Violence and Femicide Bill has been approved by Cabinet and sent to Parliament for processing.
In 2018, the National Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Summit resolved to establish a national, multi-sectoral co-ordinating body that will oversee the co-ordination and response to gender-based violence. The bill seeks to respond to this imperative by providing for the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide to serve as the ultimate custodian of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
An explanatory summary of the bill from 2021 highlights that the Council will be comprised of representatives from both government and civil society organisations and will be comprised of a Secretariat to be accountable to a Board. The draft bill provides for the establishment, objects, and functions of the Council, and for the appointment of members of the Board and the Secretariat, as well as for the establishment of norms and standards for provincial and local working groups.
The Summit was originally convened in recognition of the ongoing scourge of gender-based violence in the country and in an effort to convene to define solutions to address the challenge. It is hoped that the Council will play an effective coordinating role in facilitating multisectoral initiatives to address gender-based violence.
- The 2021 explanatory summary of the Bill is available here.
- The announcement by Minister Nkoana-Mashabane, contained in a written reply to a parliamentary question, is available here.
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