By PASSY HAACHIZO –
THE launch of the first-ever gender based violence fast track court in Zambia and the first ever in the whole Southern African region speaks volumes about the need to urgently combat the vice.
This comes in the wake of revelations by Gender Links that Zambia has the highest cases of gender based violence in southern Africa.
During the launch of the fast track court on 22nd January, 2016, at the Kabwe magistrates court, Chief Justice Irene Mambilima said the court was expected to expedite the gender based violence and related cases in the country.
According to Justice Mambilima, the court would mitigate challenges experienced by victims of gender based violence who have suffered in silence 50 years after independence.
“When it comes to gender based violence, particularly in cases to do with a child or a woman, Zambia is at liberty to protect its citizens.
“However, the judicial system alone is not enough and concerted efforts from stakeholders are needed,” she said.
Ms Justice Mambilima noted that failure to fight gender based violence would negatively scar victims’ lives. She said everyone needs to get involved in the fight against gender based violence.
She said the rule of law and access to justice was cornerstones of the mandate of the judicial systems in the fight against gender based violence.
United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Janet Rogan expressed shock at the alarming levels of gender based violence cases that were being reported every year.
“According to Zambia Police report in the third quarter of 2015, a total of 4,951 GBV cases were reported countrywide in three months,” she said.
Ms Rogan said 57 cases of rape were recorded of which 20 happened in a single month, 15 attempted rape cases and 14 cases of incest.
She also said 688 cases of child defilement consisting of girls amounting to 230 cases per month or at least 76 cases every week.
Ms Rogan attributed the animosity of gender based violence to, among other factors, the non-existence of a fast track court over a long period of time, meaning everything was left to the judicial system as cases took time to be heard in the courts of law.
She assured Zambia of UN support until such a time when the country would be liberated from bad vices such as gender based violence.
Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja said the Zambia Police was committed to the fight against gender based violence.
According to him, the police had embarked on a crusade in the fight against gender based violence cases through the formation of men and women networks.
Mr Kanganja said the police would take advantage of the launched fast track court to quickly join the rest of the country and play a pivotal role in fighting the vice.
He said the She Campaign and the I Care About Campaign are among other initiatives the police have embarked on in a bid to deal with gender based violence once and for all.
Mr Kanganja said the strategies will help men to understand their responsibility as well as help to promote gender equality in the local communities.
He said the police will also intensify its collaboration with other services, especially the Court of Justice in seeing that gender based violence is erased from being a topical issue.
“As police, we are very glad over the launch of the first fast track court as it will reduce the trauma of the gender based violence survivors who will be able now to talk with an open heart,” he said.
Zambia Prisons Service Commissioner General Percy Chato said the Prison Service will put respective tools of risk assessment especially among those who are likely to get positive sentence disposition.
Mr Chato said the fast track courts will help work as deterrent to people who might have been the next offenders.
“And from the general perspective, this will allow fast execution of cases.
It will also act as deterrent to those who might have been the next victims,” he said.
Mr Chato said the Prison Service would approach the gender based violence problem from a number of aspects.
Kabwe Magistrates Court GBV Head of Project Gilbert Mwanza said the fast track court was one of the best structures to have been put in place in the judicial system as it gives room for victims to express themselves without the culprits seeing them.
“It will be very conducive because the magistrate as usual will be on the raised platform, the defendant in the dock as usual and the plaintiff in a hidden room but the procession will be moving on smoothly with the recordings nicely on the television scan,” he said.
It is hoped that members of the public would make use of the first fast track court at the heart which has since opened in Central Province to give gender based violence victims an opportunity to see justice prevail in their cases.
It is also hoped that the fast track court would help reduce the cases of gender based violence which have been on the rise in previous years.