Namibia committed to curbing abuse by 2022: Imalwa

Prosecutor-general Martha Imalwa said the Namibian justice system is taking gender-based violence (GBV) cases seriously and aims to make huge progress against it by 2022.

“By 2022, if we have not cleared Namibia from GBV through existing initiatives, then all those GBV culprits should be behind bars, properly convicted and sentenced. Let us take this challenge as Namibians, because if not, our population will be reduced due to GBV, which is terrifying,” she said in May this year.

Imalwa was speaking at the official opening of a workshop aimed at preparing vulnerable GBV adult witnesses for court.

The five-day workshop was attended by different stakeholders including prosecutors, social workers and psychologists from the 14 regions.

Support

It was hosted by the Office of the PG in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to address issues which have been observed to curb successful prosecution of GBV crimes. Lack of support for witnesses in these crimes is one such issue.

The PG also called on more men to get involved in the fight against GBV as well as similar workshops, in order to share information from men’s points of view.

“Let us also change all these GBV organisations supposedly meant for women only and make them inclusive of everyone including men,” she added.

Imalwa alluded to how public prosecutors should never cease to serve the Namibian people, especially when it comes to GBV cases, even though they are not often praised.

“We are here to scrutinise dockets from the beginning the crime has been committed as this is the only way you will be able to know what services you or your stakeholders need to give, before your victim is further traumatised,” she stressed. - Nampa