Category Archives: Gender Rights

Zama zamas: Trying to make ends meet in the face of the apocalypse

Reports of deaths and injuries to informal miners (known as zama zamas) have a way of dividing people, with organisations like the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) calling for an intensified crackdown on unlawful mining operations and the arrest of “illegal miners”, while others like the Legal Resources Centre are calling for the better […]

Women’s Month 2016: Child marriages in South Africa

Child marriage affects girls in more ways than one. They are neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers at the age that they get married. Child marriage results in girls being disempowered, dependent on their husbands and deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education and safety. The health of a child […]

Women’s Month 2016: What to do if you are raped

What is rape? Forced sexual penetration of a person’s (male or female) genital organs, anus, mouth, or any other part of the body with a penis or an object that can be used for sexual penetration. Who can be raped? Any person of any age: this includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons, as […]

16 Days: The Vulnerability of Child Migrants

During 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, the Legal Resources Centre will be sharing the stories of survivors of gender based violence who fled their countries to seek asylum in South Africa. Many women, children and sexual and gender non-conforming persons endure horrific hardship, sexual persecution, assault, rape and discrimination […]