Open letter to the UK government to demand that the Namibia country of origin report be revised . . .

TO: UK Visas and Immigration’s (UKVI)

Country Policy Information Team (CPIT)

Open letter to the UK government to demand that the Namibia country of origin report be revised to eliminate sexism and other discrimination and accurately reflect the experience of women who have had to flee from persecution in Namibia and are claiming asylum in the UK.

We write to demand that the UK government scrap its: “Country Policy and Information Note Namibia: Women fearing gender based violence” (CPIN) and issue a new report that is accurate and in line with Namibian women’s real-life experience.ⁱ

The current report says that Namibia is a safe country and that women who have experienced violence can get protection from the authorities. It says that laws such as the Combating of Rape Act 8 (2000) and the Combating of Domestic Violence Act (2003) afford protection to women and girls from “gender-based violence”. Our experience demonstrates that this is not true and is confirmed by evidence that “ineffective implementation and inconsistent criminal enforcement remain significant barriers to protecting Namibian women from all forms of GBV [gender-based violence)”.

We are a group of 18 Namibian women who are part of the All African Women’s Group; some of us have had our asylum claims refused by the Home Office on the grounds that Namibia is a safe country for women victims of violence, some of us are still waiting for our asylum claim to be considered. We held a series of workshops to scrutinize the CPIN report and document where it contradicts our own experience.  

Firstly, we must note that the violence inflicted on us is life threatening. We charge the government with misogyny because it systematically belittles the seriousness of this violence. 

This is the experience of just one woman but many of us have suffered similarly:

My cousin raped me from the age of seven. My father knew but when I got to the age of 20 my father started forcing me to marry my cousin. I told him I refused but they set a date. My father took my precious son from me and refused to let me see him as punishment. When I went to report my cousin to the police they told me it was a traditional matter and made a phone call. As I was leaving, my cousin came which made it clear to me that the police had informed him that I had filed a complaint against him. My cousin beat me and told me that if I ever told anyone else about him, the next thing is a bullet in my head, and a knife in my throat.

Women in our group all describe a similar experience; we had to escape from Namibia because our lives were at risk. How is it that this level of violence compounded by complicity from family, the police and society is not considered political. Why are we not seen as victims of political persecution? We are expected to endure repeated rape, extreme violence, humiliation and degradation without a murmur. We refuse! In other circumstances refusal to comply with the prevailing societal view is seen as political opposition. We ask to be judged by the same standard. 

Women who courageously stand up to the social norms that allow such high levels of violence against women are ostracized. As such we have a right to be considered a “distinct social group” and be entitled to protection and refugee status. How is this different from someone (usually a man) being persecuted for their political views?

The CPIN report makes outlandish claims which could be easily disproved by a cursory examination of the facts.

It claims:

• There is “equality in law and its application in practice, and the sufficiency of state protection.”  
• There are specific laws in place which carry penalties for rape (a sentence of up to 45 years), domestic violence and forced marriage. ⁱⁱ
• “The police in Namibia are generally willing and able to provide protection.”ⁱⁱⁱ
• That “gender-based violence protection units are present across all 14 regions staffed with police, social workers, legal advisers and medical personnel to handle and investigate cases and provide services to victims and their families.”
• There are government shelters available to women and victims of domestic violence can get protection orders. 
• that if needed, victims could relocate to another area of Namibia.

In summary, it claims that the Namibian government operates “a generally effective criminal justice system, including the Namibian Police Force and an independent judiciary”.^iv 

This is not our experience and what we say is confirmed by INDEPENDENT research, including from the UN. 

Our experience

Lack of protection from the police

The first step for us to get protection and be safe is to be able to report rape and other violence to the police. Of the 18 women whose experiences make up this report, 15 (81%) had reported the violence they suffered to the police. But the police only agreed to take a statement from eight of those women and then subsequently told six women they had lost the file. Instead of helping them, seven women were referred by police to the Traditional Authority (see below). None of the women were offered or granted shelter, a protection order or saw their attacker prosecuted. 

Overall, women described how the police systematically refuse to act on reports of violence, refer women to the Traditional Authority and/or collude with their attacker to get the case withdrawn and therefore women can’t get state protection. Here are some examples of what women in the group experienced:

I went to the police because of the abuse and beating. I have given birth to a dead child due to severe beating. My child died in my stomach and I buried my child alone.  I’ve got the reports from when I went to the police but they didn’t give me any protection. 

In my case, when I went to the police, instead of the officer helping me, I was arrested. I was put in a room and they locked it. I had to sleep in the police station. The police man didn’t hear my case or anything, so I wasn’t given a chance to report or say anything. Then the next day, the police give me a warning saying that I was obstructing the police on duty and told me I had to be in court tomorrow? I went to the court with the warning and thankfully was told you can go. 

The father of my son, he’s a police officer. He was abusing me and beating me. I even have got a scar behind me on my back. He would take his gun out and say, I will kill you. I went to the police. I reported the threats and the violence the first time, and then the second time. The police they took it down in writing but then they told me that the docket that I filed with them, that it’s lost and nowhere to be found.  

My partner is my father’s cousin. They are working together against me. My father is a chief. In the village the police know my father and they know my partner. My father threatened the police saying they must not do anything with me and telling them that they were going to deal with it in our family. The police told me me to go home saying “because your father is threatening us”.

I was raped by my step dad. He does it when my mum or my siblings are somewhere else. I was panicking that if I go to the police station, I might be killed. The man threatened that if I tell my mom, he might kill me and my mom. I was scared that when my mother stands up for me the man might kill us both. This is a real fear because my sister’s mum got killed by a boyfriend, just in the same situation. That’s the problem. 

I went to the police station, when I went to go open the case. They asked for my details and as soon as I mentioned my surname, they asked me, Are you X’s daughter? The two police officers then said I should give them a minute and they both went behind the counter. When they came back, they told me to sit and wait. I waited for almost three hours and then the next thing I’m seeing is that the person that I reported to them came to get me. This is the same person that was abusing me emotionally, mentally, physically. I know for sure that this person was called by the police officers. 

I went to the police station to report my case, I was given the docket and everything. They told me they will get back to me or they are going to invite the suspect in to question him. But the suspect being my cousin, nothing happened. I went back to find out what happened to the case that I have reported, and there is no case coming up.  So at first they did take the statement and I’ve got proof of everything. But later on, it’s like they wanted to do it in a different way where is it appropriate for the person who abused me to marry me because he paid them. So, with the police it ended up  like that.

Our experiences are shared by many women in Namibia. Thousands of people took to the streets in 2020 to protest violence against women and femicide and the lack of police protection was acknowledged: 

We know that the reception that survivors get at police stations and the lack of attention and urgency with which their cases are handled is one of the major reasons why women do not report sexual violence.”^v

One survey^vi found that 92% of women reported receiving unfriendly or unhelpful services from the police when reporting rape and other violence.

Our experiences are further confirmed by research that shows that, despite reforms, women suffer “social and economic inequalities”^vii; men are entrenched in positions of power^viii; there is widespread corruption among public officials^ix, including the police^x and corruption is increasing; the police won’t act against gender-based violence^xi. 

Forced marriage

The CPIN report states “Namibia’s 2019 NNAPWPS noted ‘Forced marriages (of children and adults) are still prevalent in some regions” but gives no further information about what this means for adult women. Equally there is no information in the report about what happens to women who oppose forced marriage.^xii These omissions are more evidence of the inadequacy of the CPIN report.

Twelve women in the group fled forced marriage which was being arranged by family members, usually to cousins or other male relatives. All of the women had faced physical and/or sexual abuse from their family or community or from the man they were being forced to marry because they were refusing marriage.

One woman was told by the traditional authority that: “in your tradition from the north you should marry your cousins.”

Traditional Authority – a parallel legal system.

In Namibia there are two separate justice systems: the statutory system and an informal or traditional system which we know as the “Traditional Authority”. Traditional Authorities are generally male dominated^xiii and family connections determine who gets to be a member^xiv.

The traditional authority features very large in our lives yet the CPIN report on Namibia report barely mentions the traditional authority and when it does, says:

“Traditional authorities may adjudicate civil claims for compensation in cases of rape, but criminal trials for rape are held in courts.”

Outrageously one reference repeats victim blaming tropes saying that cases are withdrawn because victims forgive their attacker. And presents “influence” from the family and “traditional dispute resolution” as benign or even positive. 

“Cases are also withdrawn so they can be settled at traditional authority level, or due to the influence of a family member or because the victim has forgiven the suspect.”^xv

There is no mention of the enormous courage needed to make a complaint and the violence, threats, humiliations and other abuses inflicted on women and their children to force them to recant.  

Research not included in the CPIN confirms that the traditional authority is a male dominated system which upholds men’s power over women.^xvi Membership of the traditional authority is most often through “family succession or appointment from within the leadership network”.^xvii  

Many of us found that our reports of violence were referred to the traditional authority. Even worse our husbands, partners, and/or their family members were either part of the traditional authority or connected to it in some way, so the traditional authority took our abusers’ side.

Some examples are:

I was abused by my partner who is part of the traditional authority. So, when I opened a case, he went to the police and withdrew the case and said he will go deal with it traditionally. The traditional authority said that is culture. There is nothing they can do about it. 

I was beaten up while I was pregnant. I went to the police and they just gave me a paper to get treated at the hospital. When I came back to continue with the case, because I was really invested in the case to be opened, they told me no case will be opened because my husband, he is from a traditional authority family. 

The police said your husband initiated for your case to be dealt with traditionally, so there’s nothing we can do about that. I’m standing there with my husband, and I’m powerless. He had influence because he’s well known. And then the traditional authority, they didn’t even rule, because his father is the chief.  I was nine years old when I was raped by my uncle; he came into the room in the middle of the night. This whole thing was supposed to be reported because I told my mum but my grandparents said that this thing should not be reported to the police. It should be dealt with traditionally. My uncle had to give cattle to me. I was young so I didn’t even get the cattle and there was no apology and no-one said this is wrong and shouldn’t have happened.

Support and resources for rape victims

The CPIN report acknowledges that levels of violence against women are high but says that there is support and resources like shelters and protection orders are available to women: 

“GBV protection units are present across all 14 regions staffed with police, social workers, legal advisers and medical personnel to handle and investigate cases and provide services to victims and their families, police services and magistrates courts that are reportedly available throughout the country including in small towns although access may be more difficult for rural and San women.”

 Our experience contradicts this:

. . .  in Namibia, all the shelters are closed down. Lack of funding and inexperienced people are being left to run the shelters means there are no shelters of such kind. You can take the number of a shelter that appears online, or one that the Home Office mentions in that report, I tell you it won’t be open. If it is I will give you £100.

None of us were offered any kind of order like Domestic Violence Protection Order mentioned in the Home Office report. None of us even went to court. None of us had a hearing after we reported the violence. Even if I got to one of those units I would have to pay. Pay for shelter, pay for medical help.

The CPIN report acknowledges the problem quoting an NGO saying that survivors:

“ . . . have not received adequate protection from the police or prosecuting authorities. These institutions suffer from staff shortages, and a lack of vehicles, equipment, and infrastructure such as shelters or place of safety for victims.”^xviii

The Institute for Public Policy Research in Namibia published a report in March 2024, stating: “The state-run systems meant to assist victims and survivors of gender-based violence are broken – from the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare (MGEPESW) experiencing a critical shortage of social workers to the Namibian Police’s GBV Protection Units being dysfunctional.” ^xix 

According to an April 2023 report from a UN Joint Field Visit some of the problems of the GBV Protection Unitsincluded: “lack of specialised training of service providers. No training . . . or proper investigation of cases due to financial constraints, limited accessibility to the GBV services (after working hours and during weekends); no dedicated budget to the GBV

Protection Unit Services”. A site visit by the UN team to one unit found it “closed after 17:00 hours and over the weekends, . . . insufficient human resources (doctors, police, social workers) . . . Limited availability of transport to execute duties in all constituencies, limited operational space, . . . no internet connectivity and non-functional phone lines. . . with regard to the issue of places of safety, Namibian Government operated safety homes / shelters for victims of GBV are no longer operational.” 

The Special Advisor at the Ministry of Gender Equality is also quoted as saying that “GBV shelters could not be operationalised in the past due to lack of staff.”

A field visit to the shelter in Rundu in 2024 by Dr Mattia Fumanti (a recognized expert on Namibia) found: 

“There was no gate, nor fencing . . . and no other visible security measures in place to protect the safety of the residents. The fact that myself and my research assistant, two men, could walk in and out of the centre speaks volume about the effectiveness of shelters of victims of GBV in Namibia.”^xx 

The CPIN report says that registration of applications for protection orders in the magistrates court had ”risen over the last three years” But a detailed report by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada found that on the rare occasions that women were able to get a protection order they were “not enforced” by police, that there were no procedures for what to do if an order is breached.^xxi 

A report on the implementation of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, 2003, found that “police reportedly fail to take action in cases of breaches of protection orders (ibid., 511-512) and that “there is no protection against men who violate the orders; for example, men returning to their home after being barred from doing so.”^xxii

Same-sex couples were excluded from protections offered under the Combating of Domestic Violence Act (2003).^xxiii

The majority of the survivors also noted that the Gender Based Violence Unit delayed in investigating their cases, failed to follow up, and failed to protect them. The failures of the Gender Based Violence Unit are documented by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Namibia: Namibia_CSOs–Report–on–ICCPR.pdf

Why can’t women relocate to another area

The CPIN says that even if women have been persecuted and forced to flee they could return to another part of the country. 

“In general, there are parts of the country, such as (but not limited to Windhoek), where a woman, including a single woman or one with children to support, would not face persecution or serious harm and could reasonably relocate to.” 

This shows a deep ignorance of the situation in Namibia, especially for women. There are two issues. One, women can’t freely move and settle in another area of a tribe we don’t belong to and where we don’t have family support. Two, there are mechanisms in place, such as road blocks, which mean we have to give our name and details to the authorities and through this means our attackers can easily find us. 

We can’t be anonymous because if we arrived in an area unannounced, we would be asked our place of birth and clan affiliation – which are crucial in Namibia as community connections and support depend on this. Refusal to give this information would be seen as suspicious and put us at risk of being ostracized or even attacked. 

When the Home Office says relocate, relocate, well some of us, we have got like 12 sisters and 15 brothers and 30 cousins and what not. And these people don’t live in the same town or the same village or the same community. Everybody is scattered. So wherever you go, they are still going to find you, either by looks because you look like your sister, or by the same surnames. In Namibia, if you have the same surname you are mostly related. It’s not like in other countries where it’s Peter Smith this and Peter Smith that but they are not related. In Namibia if you are Kandjii and there is another Kandjii then obviously you must be related somewhere, somehow. 

I tried to relocate to another region to escape my uncle’s violence. My parents helped me. Not long after settling, a police officer came to my door and told me, I was being escorted to the border, claiming I was not from that region. I strongly believe this action was orchestrated by my uncle, who boasted frequently about the influence and favours he was owed.  

Every region has a road block so you can’t travel from one place to another. The police at the block, they look at your ID, they take your name. they will know you because even though the country is large, the population is small. There is no way you can just go and live in another area because everyone is connected to a particular area.  As a single mother, without the protection of my family, how can I support myself? And I would face hostility from the population, from my neighbours, they would say you are a loose woman without a man, my children would suffer and be teased and beaten and forced out of school. I could not lead a normal life. I could not get housing, or healthcare if we are sick. What job could I get?

The CPIN doesn’t mention the role of roadblocks as an obstacle to women trying to relocate to hide from their families or attackers, even though police road blocks “are positioned outside major cities and towns on all major highways”.^xxiv

One expert describes how “single mothers with children in Namibia rely completely on the support of their extended family. The complete lack of adequate shelter for mothers in particular who can’t take waged work because they have no family to help with childcare means they would be left destitute and at risk of more exploitation and violence”.^xxv One woman in our group said:

The only way I could survive is by prostitution. Being forced into sex with no other way to survive is extreme abuse. And prostitutes have no rights. Women are looked down on. No-one will stand up for us and the police can abuse us with no comeback.

There is further evidence that police violence against sex workers is common.^xxvi 

LGBTI rights

While same sex acts were (very recently) decriminalised in 2024, same-sex marriage remains illegal and there is a growing hostility to LGBTI people.^xxvii

When it comes to protection to the LGBTQ plus rights, definitely we are not protected. I was robbed and beaten, and my belongings were taken away from me. I came to the police. Obviously, I was in shock and exhausted. I’m telling them I was just robbed. My phone was taken, my money was taken, my shoes were taken. And I’m bleeding and I’m beaten up. And these officers are whispering and they are looking at the way I’m dressed. And then they’re like are you a man or woman? Nothing was done. They said you’re a man so you can go run after these people. I was very upset and in my anger and my frustration, I started insulting the police officers. I said you guys are very corrupt. And I was arrested that day while I was bleeding, with my eyes swollen and everything. They arrested me. They put me in a holding cell. I was left until the morning without nothing, no shoes. I had to walk to the hospital in that way that I was, like, looking robbed and everything. 

My family began to suspect I was lesbian because I was always hanging out with girls.

When I reached my twenties, my mom kept asking me when I was going to bring a man home for her to meet, but I had no interest in men and couldn’t face the idea. I’d known since high school that I liked women and I found my situation unbearable and very depressing. I suffered lots of migraines and was always at the doctor’s and in and out of hospital having scans. My mother was beginning to lose patience and wanted me married so she made arrangements for me to marry my uncle who was twice my age. I found out what they were planning but there was no one in my community I could confide in, as same sex relationships are taboo and they would have told my family so I was forced to leave Namibia.

General context of high levels of violence against women

There is a mass of evidence to show that violence against women is at epidemic levels in Namibia. One report summarises recent incidents: 

“TheNamibianpolicedatashows that about 5 427 Gender-based violence-related cases were reported in the 2019/20 financial year and 2 643 in 2020/2021, the majority of which were perpetrated by men against women.” 

But there is also evidence to show that the state is blocking any efforts to win change by attacking those who demand it. In 2020, the #ShutItAllDown protests led primarily by women against SGBV were attacked by armed police. 

SURVEY OF WOMEN IN OUR WORKSHOP 

We did a survey among the women who attended one of our workshops to find out how many felt able to get the protections outlined in the CPIN report. None had been able to get protection. All the women had fled violence in Namibia. 

• 18 women in total.
• 13 women had reported the violence to the police10 women had the police take a statement from them.
• Six women were told by the police afterwards that they lost their files.
• No women had received help from a Gender Based violence protection unit
• No women got a domestic violence protection order.
• Two women’s attackers were arrested – one was held for two days then released and one was released after a few hours. There was no follow up action by the police.
• Eight women were told by police that their report of violence should be dealt with by the Traditional Authority.
• Six women reported their attacker to the traditional authority instead of police. Of these, one women’s parents’ chose this route. 
• One woman’s attacker received a warning from the traditional authority 
• 10 women were sure that the police contacted their abuser to tell them they had reported the violence
• 12 women escaped forced marriage/threat of forced marriage
• 18 women tried to relocate within Namibia; 10 were found by the person who they were trying to escape from
• Eight women were destitute and this forced them to return to the person who abused them.
• No women received support from a shelter for victims of GBV

Summary of the experience from Namibian women backed up by independent sources:

• Violence against women is widespread despite laws claiming to provide protection.
• Women who refuse to accept violence are persecuted and left unprotected.
• Police systematically refuse to take action to protect victims and in some cases collude with the attacker. 
• Women are routinely fobbed off or referred to the traditional authority which sides with the attacker, downplays domestic violence in particular, claiming that it is a personal matter that should be resolved internally within the family and therefore reinforces men’s right to attack with impunity.
• Gender Based Violence protection units and shelters for victims do not exist as claimed and protection orders, on the rare occasions where they are put in place, are ineffective because the police refuse to enforce them.
• Women cannot safely relocate to another area in Namibia because they are easily identified by family or clan affiliation and any contact with the authorities such as the police via ubiquitous roadblocks for example, puts them in danger with police likely to inform their attacker of the victim’s location. 
• Homophobia and transphobia are rampant and endorsed by the state so that LGBTQI people are routinely persecuted and denied protection from violence. 

We therefore urge the UK government to amend the CPIN report to include the destructive role of the traditional authority in preventing women getting protection and justice, eliminate sexism such as victim blaming, give an up-to-date accurate accounting of the services available to victims and a realistic assessment, incorporating what women say about their own experience, of the possibilities of victims of violence being able to relocate to another area within Namibia.

From: 18 Namibian women in the All African Women’s Group.

10 June 2025

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