The One in Nine Campaign
Femmes for Freedom
In South Africa only one in nine women who have been raped report the crime to the police. Despite laws and policies at the national level, survivors of sexual violence receive little support. Few cases make it to court, and of those that are prosecuted, there's a less than five percent conviction rate.
Netherlands-based Femmes for Freedom believes that women should be able to make their own decisions. They should be able to choose if they want to marry or not, with whom, and to leave their marriage when they want to. Yet there are women living in the Netherlands who remain ‘locked’ in marriage captivity because the civil or religious laws they married under do not allow divorce (or do not allow women to divorce without their husband’s consent). In the Netherlands, cases of marriage captivity are not (yet) registered; it is therefore difficult to give an estimate of the number of women affected. However, in the period MayDecember 2012 alone, Femmes for Freedom provided support to over 50 women in marriage captivity in the cities of Rotterdam and the Hague. Of these women, six started legal procedures to end their marriages, with the support of Femmes for Freedom.
The One in Nine Campaign was established in 2006 at the time that Jacob Zuma (a prominent ANC member who became President in 2009), was on trial for rape. The Campaign's membership and leadership is predominantly black women, women living with HIV, lesbians, bisexual women and heterosexual women of all ages. Most are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. The Campaign believes that in the absence of social and economic justice, formal political and civil rights only benefit social elites and a privileged few. The Campaign works to call attention to the many forms of structural violence that mainstream and even feminist anti-violence movements in South Africa fail to address. The Campaign talks openly about the unequal distribution of power and resources in South Africa. It shows how these inequalities devalue many people’s lives, especially women’s lives, and normalise and perpetuate violence. The Campaign uses participatory research to uncover women’s experiences of violence, organises public demonstrations, advocates for and amplifies the voices of survivors in legal and policy decisions, and works through the media to influence public opinion. The Campaign also directly supports rape survivors whose cases have been ignored or are not handled according to the law, ensuring that these cases are put back on the court roll and successfully prosecuted.
A protest of the One in Nine Campaign against sexual and genderbased violence in South Africa. 12 Focus on reframing violence
Femmes for Freedom identifies and mobilises women who live in marriage captivity to challenge this custom and take their cases to court. The organisation began in December 2011 and in less than a year has managed to change the legal definition of forced marriage in the Netherlands so that it now includes not only forced entrance into a marriage, but also forced captivity in marriage. Led by a woman who experienced marriage captivity herself, the organisation is keen to increase the visibility and amplify the voices of other women in similar situations. But often these women are not ready to ‘come out’ beyond their immediate family and friends. Femmes for Freedom runs support groups so that women can talk about the conditions of their marriages and share experiences. The organisation hopes that eventually some of the women in marriage captivity will take steps towards making a legal case to end their marriages, giving them greater freedom to speak and act publically. The change was included in an amendment to the Penal Law on 22 October 2012. Also, thanks to the efforts of Femmes for Freedom, the Dutch government is currently in the process of setting up a Task Force `Forced Marriage'.
Femmes for Freedom at a demonstration for women's rights in the Netherlands.