Gender activists petition Judiciary

The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Gender Coordinating Network (NGO-GCN) on Tuesday petitioned the Judiciary, faulting magistrate courts for meting out lenient sentences on cases involving gender-based violence and sexual abuse offences.

NGO-GCN petitioned Chief Justice Anastasia Msosa in Blantyre in its bid to push courts to give punishments relevant to cases. The petition was delivered by a girl from Mulanje who was reportedly raped.

Mercy Makhambera from NGO-GCN read the petition which was received by the registrar of the High Court of Malawi and Supreme Court of Appeal, Joseph Chigona, and High Court Judge Dunstain Mwaungulu.

Reads the petition in part: “Some courts are not effectively applying legislations such as the Prevention of Domestic Act (2006), the Deceased Estates (Wills and Inheritance Amendment) Act (2011), the Child Care, Justice and Protection Act (2010) and the Gender Equality Act (2013).

“Trivilisation of cases of defilement and rape, including other gender-based violence cases by some quarters of the Judiciary, results in victims getting unsatisfactory redress.”

Other issues raised in the petition include reported corruption, lack of confidentiality in cases involving minors, mysterious disappearance of rape and defilement case files and lack of harmonised approach to handling the cases.

The body called on the Chief Justice to take necessary measures so that corruption and dishonesty practices are eradicated in gender based violence cases.

Father of the Mulanje rape victim who presented the petition, recounted how his daughter was defiled. He said the incident occured on the night of June 10 2012. His daughter slept in the living room of their one-bedroomed house. Later in the night, he heard her getting out of the house but never heard her coming in.

“Together with neighbours, we started looking for her and she was found in the maize garden, injured in her private parts. We took her to Mulanje District Hospital where we were referred to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital [in Blantyre] where she had eight stitches.”

Chigona acknowledged receipt of the petition and said the court is in the process of reviewing all verdicts by the magistrate courts, including sexual violence cases.