Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide: The Absence of Public Policy on Intimate Partner Violence Abrogates the Rights to Health Care and Bodily Integrity Under the South African Constitution

Authors

Stu Woolman, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Courtenay Sprague, University of Massachusetts Boston

Abstract

An estimated 31-55% of South African women experience lfetime intimate partner violence ("IPV'). The imminent danger of physical, psychological or sexual violence that all South African women face daily not only threatens their very existence, it impairs their development and agency, and thus the ability of each woman to pursue a lfe that reflects her own comprehensive vision of a fulfilling way of being in the world. This article first establishes the legal basis for the proposition that the South African Constitution and South Africa's international obligations require a form of public intervention that has the ability to diminish IP V. The article then provides the factual predicate of our argument: (1) the nature and the extent of IPV; and (2) a lacuna in extant law that disables the state from properly attending to IPV Given the absence of any law, policy or protocol that engages intimate partner violence, the article concludes that the state has failed to discharge its constitutional obligations under section 12 (the right to freedom and security of the person), section 27 (the right of access to health care services) and section 7(2) (the general duty of the state to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill the entire Bill of Rights), and South Africa's international obligations in terms of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Read together, and in light of the factual predicate, these rights and duties support two important findings. First, several constitutional infirmities exist, including the failure of the state to create a coordinated and comprehensive plan that technically and feasibly addresses IPV Second, any comprehensive and coordinated plan must recognize that public health care practitioners play a critical role in the treatment of and the protection of women subject to IPV, and that these practitioners must receive adequate training andfunding in order to deal with this crisis in an effective manner.

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | Health Law and Policy | Law | Law and Gender

Recommended Citation

Stu Woolman & Courtenay Sprague, Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide: The Absence of Public Policy on Intimate Partner Violence Abrogates the Rights to Health Care and Bodily Integrity Under the South African Constitution, 22 Cardozo J. Equal Rts. & Soc. Just. 29 (2015).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cardozoersj/vol22/iss1/4