Laws ignore digital violence in 16 southern African countries
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Lestimes
In the 16 countries of the Southern African Development Community, laws still do not sufficiently punish digital violence against women and girls. Only five countries have legislation that clearly addresses these offences, while none has a dedicated data collection system, according to a note from the SADC Parliamentary Forum and Equality Now.
In the 16 member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), laws still provide very little protection against technology-facilitated gender-based violence, according to a note published by the SADC Parliamentary Forum and the organisation Equality Now. Such violence includes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, sexual extortion and online harassment.
Eleven of the 16 countries have cybercrime or electronic evidence laws, but only five of these clearly classify technology-facilitated gender-based violence as an offence. None of the 16 states has a dedicated system for collecting data on these crimes, according to the note.
South Africa criminalises the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and has secured convictions, while Zimbabwe has a similar ban. The note also points to electronic evidence preservation mechanisms in Eswatini and a regulator handling data protection complaints in Botswana.
