This brief is based on the findings of a study undertaken to understand women's experiences of shelter services and the factors that aided or hindered their long-term recovery from abuse; an aspect crucial to improving government and non-profit sector policy and practice.
While South Africa is in lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, for those in abusive relationships, isolating at home presents additional risks. Our partner, the National Shelter Movement, has put together some suggestions for those needing to stay safe and seek help during this time.
Keeping the Faith: Working at the Crossroads of Religion and Sexual and Gender Rights is a project of the HBF that seeks to explore and support faith as a site for strengthening human rights and justice for LGBTIQ people. This publication provides a snapshot of current issues, initiatives and central actors in the field and a conceptual framework to advance sexual and gender rights, as well as potential strategies to inform such work.
This publication is the last in a series of provincial studies on shelters for abused women undertaken by the HBF and the NSM and supported by the EU. This study focuses on women's experiences of having accessed shelters and those who render such services. It does so in an attempt to better understand what is required to meet the long-term needs of those seeking reprieve and an end to violence.
This publication is one of a series of provincial studies on women's uses of shelters undertaken by the HBF and the National Shelter Movement of SA's EU-supported 'Enhancing State Responsiveness to GBV: Paying the True Costs' project. The publication describes women's uses of domestic violence shelters paying particular attention to women's mental health needs as well as government policy and budgets in relation to the provision of sheltering services in the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
This research paper explores responses by the police to victims of domestic violence, specifically, in their capacity to refer women to shelter services as required by legislation. The paper is associated to the Enhancing State Responsiveness to GBV: Paying the True Costs, a project of the HBF and the NSM.
In S v Baloyi the Constitutional Court placed a clear duty on the state to address domestic violence. Shelters disrupt this violence in significant ways but are significantly under-funded. This brief examines existing policy around shelters for abused women and recommends how this can be expanded and costed to more effectively uphold women’s rights and needs.
Shelters provide critical services to abused women, yet, most are chronically under-funded and highly variable. Current government allocations to shelters are not informed by a costing framework. This results in services being driven by resources rather than best practice. A new report aims to address that short-coming.
This publication is the first of a series of shadow reports that the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the National Shelter Movement of South Africa have produced in relation to their ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to Gender Based Violence: Paying the True Costs’ project. The publication was partly produced with the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence against Women.
This publication is the second of a series of shadow reports that the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the National Shelter Movement of South Africa have produced in relation to their ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to Gender Based Violence: Paying the True Costs’ project. The publication was partly produced with the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence against Women.This report was produced with the financial support of the European Union.