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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
GOVERNMENT has been urged to come up with a special transport arrangement for women to curb violence against womenfolk who continue to suffer various forms of inhumane and degrading treatment in public places.
The Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) said public transport was a hot-spot for perpetrators of violence against women.
This emerged during a women’s symposium held in Harare to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence this week.
“We urge Government to decisively curb violence against women in the public transport by introduction of “pink buses” to ferry women and children only,” said WCoZ during a media briefing.
The women’s organisation also called for duty bearers, stakeholders, development partners, civil society organisations, communities and individual citizens to adopt and implement comprehensive measures for decisively addressing violence against women.
“We urge Government and Parliament to urgently conclude on the enactment of the marriages laws, which seeks to criminalise child marriages,” said WCoZ.
“We call for urgency in the enactment of a clear specific sexual harassment law, to address various forms of violence against women.”
WCoZ, with the support of the United Nation’s Women convened the two-day symposium.
More than 200 women from grassroots, national and regional levels, plus Government ministries, Parliament, and independent commissions converged at the symposium over the two days to discuss the status quo on the protection of women and girls from violence.
WCoZ said Zimbabwe was signatory to several regional and international instruments that promotes women’s rights and gender equality and also extend protection to women against all forms of violence.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe also guarantees equality, freedom from all forms of violence, equal access to resources among other provisions.
“Despite these progressive measures women and girls in Zimbabwe continue to be subjected to violence in both public and private spaces,” said WCoZ in its communique read out to journalists.
Covid-19 has not spared them as the deadly virus exacerbated inequalities and aggravated the rate of violence against women.
The mandatory lockdowns meant to curb the spread of Covid-19 saw many women and girls being trapped with their abusers with nowhere to get help during the national lockdown.
In addition, marginalised various groups of women are taking the hardest hit of violence against women, according to WCoZ, and these included girls, women with disabilities and sexual minorities.
It was also noted during the hold-no bars discussion that child marriages increased during the Covid -19, which had seen the majority of girls dropping out of school thereby exacerbating gender inequalities in education.
The women expressed concern that as the world focusses more attention on Covid-19 containment measures such as vaccine formulation and roll out, gender-based-Violence response had been deprioritised.
WCoZ provides a focal point for activism on women and girl’s rights and brings females from diverse backgrounds to collectively advocate for the attainment and enjoyment of their rights.
Online Reporter