Issued by: Ministry of Justice
16 February 2000
The Department for Justice and Constitutional Development, will host a National Inter-Sectorial Forum on Sexual Offences in Cape Town from 16-18 February 2000.
The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Bulelani Ngcuka and the Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development, Ms Cheryl Gillwald, will open the Conference at a dinner to be held this evening at Lady Halmet Hotel. The Minister of Safety and Security, Mr Steve Tshwete and the Minister for Justice, Dr Penuell Maduna, will deliver keynote address on the morning of Thursday 17 February. Statements will also be presented on behalf of the Ministries of Health and Welfare.
The objective of this conference is to promote co-operation and co-ordination between officials of the four departments which are role-players in courts in which rape and other sexual offences are prosecuted. The four departments are Justice, Safety and Security, Welfare and Health. The conference will also explore the role which non-governmental organizations can play in providing victim support and improving court efficiency.
The conviction rate for perpetrators of sexual offences is low. This is artly due to a relative low incidence of reporting of these crimes, but is also due to in efficiency in the collection of evidence and its presentation in court. Two projects have been established by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to address the problems presented by sexual offences cases. The first is a research project being conducted by the South African Law Commission with the objective of changing the law. The second project focuses on establishing specialised courts to hear these matters, and the training of officials from ill sectors who are role-players in these courts -investigating officers, prosecutors, social welfare officers and district surgeons or forensic nurses. Overviews of these projects will be presented at the conference and delegates will then participate in workshops to discuss how best to achieve the twin objects of improving conviction rates and eliminating secondary victimization.
Secondary victimization refers to the trauma which victims are often subjected to in going through the process of reporting an offence, being medically examined, making statements and then giving evidence in court it is necessary to train the officials who deal with the victim during this process to be sensitive and supportive. It is hoped that this kind of attention to the needs of victims will encourage more victims to report sexual offences and will eliminate the additional trauma which victims have so often suffered in going through the legal process.
ISSUED BY PAUL SETSETSE ON BEHALF OF MINISTER MADUNA
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