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AP (File photo) / Victims drop criminal charges for fear of retaliation
Although the number of cases of domestic violence in Mozambique has increased, the Association of Women in Legal Careers says the dropping of legal processes by women victims is one of the main setbacks in the fight against this phenomenon in the last 20 years.
Official data from the Assistance to Women and Children Office indicates that more than 12,000 cases of domestic violence were registered in just the first six months of this year. Of these, 8,000 concerned violence against women, while a little over 1,000 involved male victims.
Some of the cases resulted in the prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators, but these still did not serve as a sufficient deterrent.
According to Júlia Wachave of the Association of Women in Legal Careers, one of the commonest setbacks is the dropping of court cases by the victims, for fear of reprisals by the family.
“Setbacks in these 20 years of assistance were cases withdrawal and abandonment by women who often want to withdraw complaints even though once the process has been initiated, it is not possible to stop it,” Wachave explains.
Obstruction by the police is another factor that sometimes prevents perpetrators of domestic violence being called to account.
“We have had some problems with the police in the instruction of the process itself, because we need more collaboration between the police, courts and even the health sector to avoid processes going awry” Wachave says.
Overcoming the fear of reporting violence is another challenge, and the Association of Women in Legal Careers recommends that conditions be created to make the victims of domestic violence to feel comfortable reporting perpetrators.
In Mozambique, there are 138 domestic violence support centres in the country’s 11 provinces, and more than 20,000 women and children are being supported.
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