Question

recommend five strategies that south africans could put into place to prevent gender based violence​

Answer 1

Answer:

There are many forms of GBV. GBV can be physical, sexual, emotional, financial or structural. Violence can be perpetrated by intimate partners, acquaintances, strangers and institutions. The forms of GBV include violence against women and girls, violence against LGBTI people, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sexual violence and indirect (structural) violence.

Structural violence is described as violence that is built into structures, resulting in unequal power relations and unequal opportunities affecting certain groups, classes, genders or nationalities of people. Political and social norms change can address structural violence.

Intimate partner violence is the most common form of GBV. It includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and controlling behaviours by a current or former intimate partner or spouse. Intimate partner violence can happen in heterosexual or same-sex couples.

We know that GBV levels are high but we don’t always have accurate statistics due to many factors, for example, under-reporting of incidents. GBV is very high in South Africa compared to other countries. On average, one in five South African women older than 18 has experienced physical violence. Thousands of women and children are psychologically harmed by GBV and suffer long-term trauma and harm to their lives. The main drivers as shown by the available statistics are intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. Gender-based violence permeates all structures of society – political, economic and social -and is driven by entrenched patriarchy and complex and intersectional power inequalities found in race, gender, class and sexuality.