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Joining hands against domestic violence

- June 4, 2008

The doc It's Time: African Women Join Hands Against Domestic Violence, will screen in Halifax on Thursday, June 5, 7 p.m. in Room 105, Weldon Law Building.

A groundbreaking training model for integrating the justice system, developed in British Columbia, is now being used in South Africa and Ethiopia to train police, prosecutors and judges to work together to combat the rampant domestic violence in these countries.

The African project leaders, Mahdere Paulos (ex high-court judge and executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyer's Association) and Tsidi Kambula (prosecutor for the South African National Prosecuting Authority), are on a Canadian tour, sharing information about the African experience with Canadian agencies and legal organizations.

Their Halifax stop this week is being coordinated by the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia and the Law Courts Education Society of B.C. Ms. Paulos and Ms. Kambula will introduce a documentary, It’s Time: African Women Join Hands Against Domestic Violence, on Thursday, June 5, and share the challenges and lessons learned with students and professors at Dalhousie Law School on Friday, June 6.

The powerful documentary depicts the desperate plight of women and girls in South Africa and Ethiopia, and the fearless efforts of these African women to change the system. It tells how a unique partnership between a Canadian agency and two African organizations is working to combat the epidemic of domestic violence in these countries.

The screening takes place Thursday, June 5 at 7 p.m. in Room 105 of Weldon Law Building, 6061 University Ave. Admission is free.

"These issues of domestic violence are universal issues," says Peter Mushkat, who lectures on environmental law at Dalhousie. "I think it's valuable to compare notes and see how people in other countries are dealing with domestic violence. Innovative solutions can come from unexpected places. And while they may not translate directly, there's always value in learning about a different approach.”

Domestic violence is an enduring issue in Canada. According to a recent Statistics Canada survey of 26,000 Canadians, seven per cent of people who were married or living in a common-law relationship experienced some form of violence in the five years prior to the survey.

SEE TRAILER: It's Time: African Women Join Hands Against Domestic Violence

Domestic violence facts

  • Domestic violence is a leading cause of female injury in almost every country in the world (The Global Report on Women’s Human Rights).
  • Up to 70 per cent of female murder victims worldwide are killed by their male companions and as many as one-third of girls are forced into their first sexual experience.
  • In South Africa, one out of every six women in South Africa is regularly beaten by their partners. In 46 per cent of domestic violence cases, the men involved also abused the children.
  • In Ethiopia, 59 per cent of women have suffered sexual violence. More than 74 per cent have undergone some form of genital mutilation and cutting.
  • In Ethiopia, 80 per cent and 78 per cent of Ethiopian women believe that female infidelity and disobeying a husband respectively are justifications for domestic violence.
  • In Canada, 30 to 50 per cent of women visiting hospital emergency is due to domestic violence.

 

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