Dutch organization calls for establishment of GBV courts at state level

The Project Coordinator of Dutch organization, Pax for Peace, Matina Kani has appealed for the establishment of Gender-Based Violence Courts and juvenile courts to try cases related to GBV and sexual-related violence at the state levels.
Matina Kani, the Project Coordinator of Pax for Peacein South Sudan speaks to journalists on Thursday.

By Simon Deng

The Project Coordinator of Dutch organization, Pax for Peace, Matina Kani has appealed for the establishment of Gender-Based Violence Courts and juvenile courts to try cases related to GBV and sexual-related violence at the state levels.

“We just want to encourage the government, the stakeholders to really strengthen the system, create GBV courts and the juvenile courts at state level so that when there are cases, they can be addressed at the professional level,” said Kani on Thursday in an interview with the Dawn.

Pax for peace organized on Thursday three- day training on GBV at Royal Hotel which saw participants attend from Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Unity state and Upper Nile state.

Kani said that they are training and empowering women at different levels to advocate for reduction of harmful gender practices, adding that the project is designed to empower different category of women, parliamentarians and civil society groups.

She disclosed that they are creating more awareness on the right s of women; girls and children especially in relation to the Maputo Protocol.

“We are doing biannual exchange visits for stakeholders from different project locations, we also encourage the government and well-wishers to train more judges, to train more lawyers and then establish the system so that it can be very effective for our people,” said Kani.

She disclosed the urgent need to strengthen the justice system to address GBV cases instead of them being handled by traditional courts.

 “We have GBV court in Juba but we do not have it at state levels, there are no GBV courts so cases are piling up there, we do not want to depend on the traditional system like customary law because it is letting us down,” said Kani.

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