Updated open letter to the UK government calling for the Namibia Country of Origin Report, issued in December 2025, to be changed. The revised report must eliminate sexism and other discrimination and accurately reflect the experiences of women who have fled persecution in Namibia and are seeking asylum in the UK.
We are a group of 32 women from Namibia who are part of the All African Women’s Group. We came to the UK to escape rape, forced marriage, trafficking and other life-threatening violence. Some of us have had our asylum claims refused by the Home Office on the grounds that Namibia is a safe country and some of us have also been refused by the Tribunal on the same basis.
Our group is made up of mainly Herero women from Namibia. The systematic discrimination we face today did not begin with us. It began during colonial rule, when our ancestors were massacred and our people’s land and cattle were stolen.
In Namibia, many of us lived under oppressive and sexist customary laws enforced by Traditional Authorities. The men who raped and attacked us were often in positions of power, including police officers, army officers, community leaders, and members of the Traditional Authority. Because of this, it was almost impossible to report violence, access justice, or get protection.
We worked collectively with the help of Legal Action for Women and Women Against Rape to collate our experiences and in July 2025 we issued the first version of this Open Letter to the Home Office demanding that the UK government scrap its Country Policy and Information Note Namibia: Women fearing gender based violence (CPIN) because it didn’t accurately reflect the experience of Namibian women.
In December 2025, the Home Office issued a new CPIN. It retains many of the prejudices and inaccuracies of the previous version and, in important ways, makes matters worse.
- The new CPIN says: A woman who fears a rogue state actor and/or a non-state actor is likely to obtain protection from the state. So, the burden of proof is against women. Previously it said that “decision makers must assess whether the state can provide effective protection”.
- The new CPIN says nothing about the role of Traditional Authorities in enforcing customary law, particularly forced marriage (which remains widespread in Namibia), or the severe discrimination faced by Herero women, including whether they constitute a “particular social group” for the purposes of the Refugee Convention.
- While the new CPIN recognises trafficking as a form of gender-based violence and refers to various laws against trafficking, it doesn’t assess the risks faced by victims of trafficking or modern slavery (which may be very different from other victims of violence), including the risk of re-trafficking, whether victims can get state protection and/or relocate within Namibia.
We have therefore updated our Open Letter to include our objections to the new CPIN along with some important additional information and expert evidence.
SUMMARY
The CPIN claims:
1. Women can obtain protection from the authorities, specifically that there isan “effective legal system for the detection, prosecution and punishment of acts constituting persecution or serious harm and which is accessible to [victims]. It justifies this by pointing to laws such as the Combating of Rape Act (2000) and the Combating of Domestic Violence Act (2003), detailing government pronouncements and campaigns and giving examples of arrests and prosecutions to justify this claim.
2. Women have access to support and protection services, specifically thatwomen can obtain protection orders, access shelters and get help from voluntary organisations.
3. Women can relocate within Namibia, specifically that women can “move without restriction within the country” and “there are parts of Namibia . . . where it will be reasonable to expect a woman to relocate”.
However, the CPIN simultaneously cites evidence from UN bodies, government departments and NGOs that show that these protections are often ineffective in practice.
The CPIN says, for example:
- “The [UN Human Rights] Committee is also concerned about the low level of reporting of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, due to factors such as fear of reprisals”
- The problems women face accessing protection orders, shelters and other services, for example, the “NGO ICCPR report 2024 commented: ‘The state-run systems meant to assist victims and survivors of gender-based violence are broken . . . Namibian Police’s GBV Protection Units being dysfunctional.”
- “UN HRC was concerned about low number of prosecutions of perpetrators of GBV” and “the low number of convictions for perpetrators of GBV.”
Taken together, the CPIN’s reliance on evidence that does not support its conclusions, coupled with its omission of the role of Traditional Authorities, forced marriage, discrimination against Herero women and the risks to trafficking survivors, means that its assessment of state protection for victims of violence in Namibia isn’t credible.
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 32 women whose experiences make up this report, 25 (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. 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 policeman 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.”
- 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 to go home saying “because your father is threatening us”.
- 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
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. Out-Right Namibia commented:
“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.[i]
One survey found that 92% of women reported receiving unfriendly or unhelpful services from the police when reporting rape and other violence.[ii]
Forced marriage
Shockingly the December 2025 CPIN omits any reference to forced marriage, despite this being a recognised form of gender-based violence. And there is no information in the report about what happens to women who oppose forced marriage.[iii]
Twenty 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 had her child taken from her as punishment.
We are forced into marriage. You can marry your cousin or somebody you don’t even know. If it’s time to get married, or an elderly person in the family has passed away, you are given to that person without your consent. Whether you want to or not, you need to be there. A lot of relationships do not last in Namibia and violence is included because the woman wants to step out of a relationship she was forced into.
- By arranging my marriage to this man, who was much older than me and already had eight wives, my father could benefit from his connection to a powerful traditional chief of our tribe and he would also receive valuable gifts in exchange for the marriage.
- With the Himba tradition it can start when a child is two years old, with someone saying, ‘I’m going to marry your daughter.’ From two years old, you are already assigned to someone, and they bring cattle to your family. As you grow up, when they feel your breasts are coming out, he can come and take you to his house so he can start grooming you into his wife. So it starts from 12 years. There are other tribes and they also do the same thing.
- I was forced to marry my cousin by my uncle. He raped me and forced me to be his domestic. I reported the abuse to the police and to the Traditional authorities in Namibia. I also reported it to my uncle. My uncle brought the police to our home. However, instead of arresting my husband, they only counselled us and told him not to abuse me. He was not detained and no protection or restriction order was put in place. After the police left, the abuse continued.
One woman was specifically told by the Traditional Authority that: “in your tradition from the north [i.e. Herero tradition] you should marry your cousins.”
Expert evidence confirms that forced marriage is widespread in Namibia.
“Arranged marriages and forced marriages for young women are also common practice in some communities in Namibia. . . . Young women in these communities do not have a choice; parents and other clan members decide to whom they will be given into marriage.” [iv]
“A UNICEF study found that there were more than 64,000 women who had been subjected to forced marriage as children. The Namibian Sun reported that of the 64,000 child brides, a total of 15 500 women and girls were married before 15.[v]
A 2020 study by the Namibian Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare reported an 18.4% prevalence of forced marriages among girls.
Most of the women in our group are from the Herero ethnic group. When information about the customary laws of several Herero Traditional Authorities was collated, it showed that “parents’ authority to arrange marriages is widely recognised among the Herero.” [vi] Also, two of the regions with the highest prevalence of child marriage have substantial Herero populations.[vii]
Discrimination against Herero Women
Of the various ethnic groups in Namibia, Herero women are among the most systematically discriminated against. The CPIN acknowledges that access to effective state protection is more difficult for “rural and San women”, without explaining who such “rural” women are. One of the experts who provided a report for our cases questions this specific reference only to the San people, stating “While Ms X is not of the San people, she is Herero, an equally marginalized group in Namibia”.
Yet the CPIN says nothing about this. This discrimination can be traced directly back to the German genocide where 80% of the Herero population were murdered or killed from forced displacement starvation and thirst. That discrimination and abuse has continued up to the present day with Herrero people being treated as second-class citizens and Herero women in particular suffering poverty, systematic discrimination and lack of access to justice.
As one of the expert reports in our cases has pointed out: “An important point to note is that Article 66 of the Namibian Constitution grants customary law the same recognition as civil law. This creates room for certain practices that are harmful to women and girls to persist in the name of adhering to local customs. For example, even though Namibian law states that marriage should take place only with the free and full consent of two adults, under Herero customary law, arranged and cross-cousin marriages are permissible.”[viii]
Therefore, Herero women face particular discrimination from the criminal justice system and cannot obtain sufficient protection because the police consider these cases to be the realm of the Traditional Authorities which have power over customary law.
We believe that the distinctive nature of the discrimination faced by Herero women, as well as its severity and widespread occurrence, entitles us to be considered as a “particular social group”.
Traditional Authority – a parallel legal system.
In Namibia there are two separate justice systems: the criminal justice system and a traditional justice system which we know as the “Traditional Authority”.
The Traditional Authority features very largely in our lives yet the CPIN report speaks only of “customary law” without mentioning Traditional Authorities which have enormous powers to enforce those laws.
Traditional Authorities are not informal structures. What we have found out since we did the first Open Letter is that Traditional Authorities are STATUTORY INSTITUTIONS established under the Traditional Authorities Act of 2000 which outlines in detail their powers. These included to: “supervise and ensure the observance of the customary law of that community by its members . . . administer and execute the customary law of that traditional community.
What possible justification is there for the CPIN not mentioning the Traditional Authorities? How can the CPIN have any credibility when it omits completely such a significant issue that has such an enormous impact on the lives of Namibians. How can the CPIN claim that there is a functioning police and court system when it says nothing about this parallel and influential justice system operating in Namibia?
Experts have reported on the broad powers of the Traditional Authority as well as its lack of independence and accountability:
“An important aspect of Traditional Authority is the broad scope of its power. Unlike formal state institutions, which maintain a separation of powers among the executive, legislature, and judiciary, Traditional Authorities do not. As a result, these authorities hold executive power to govern local areas, legislative power to create customary laws, and judicial authority to hear and resolve disputes based on local customs. Consequently, individuals affiliated with the Traditional Authority – such as traditional councillors or senior traditional leaders – can wield substantial influence in their communities. Their position within the traditional structure provides them with networks that enable them to sway decisions, a situation compounded by the high levels of corruption observed in Namibia.”[ix]
Research not included in the CPIN confirms that the Traditional Authority is a male-dominated system which upholds men’s power over women.[x] [xi] Membership of the Traditional Authority is most often through “family succession or appointment from within the leadership network”.[xii]
Many of us found that our reports of violence were referred to the Traditional Authority. Even worse our husbands, cousins, 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. 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 are support and resources like shelters and protection orders are available to women, specifically that the government has established “17 Gender Based Violence Protection Units (GBVPUs) across all 14 regions which are responsible for attending to GBV cases.”
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 itself includes evidence from NGOs that:
‘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 experiencing a critical shortage of social workers to the Namibian Police’s GBV Protection Units being dysfunctional.”[xiii]
And evidence from the UN:
“The UN CEDAW report 2022 noted: ‘The limited access for women, in particular rural and indigenous women and girls, to protection orders, reparations, shelters and psychosocial treatment and counselling.”[xiv]
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.”[xv]
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 recognised 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 volumes about the effectiveness of shelters of victims of GBV in Namibia.”[xvi] Same-sex couples were excluded from protections offered under the Combating of Domestic Violence Act (2003).[xvii]
When the abuser is a man in authority
The CPIN mentions “fear of reprisal” as a reason for under-reporting of rape and other violence but says nothing about who women may fear reprisals from. For most of us, our attackers were either a police officer, army officer, a community leader or a member of a Traditional Authority and reporting them meant we suffered further violence and intimidation.
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.
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.
“A person is likely to be able to internally relocate to escape persecution or serious harm by a rogue state and/or non-state actors. This is because in general, there are parts of Namibia, such as Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Rundu, where it will be reasonable to expect a woman to relocate.”
This shows a deep ignorance of the situation in Namibia, especially for women. There are three issues: one, the population density of Namibia is very low (2.5 million people spread over a territory the size of France); two 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; three, 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. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office notes that checkpoints exist outside all major towns and highways.[xviii]
Citing a 2024 journal article, an expert wrote in one of our reports: “A recent study of mobility in secondary cities highlighted that even at the neighbourhood level, movements are closely monitored and controlled”.[xix] The same expert states “Research on police-community relations in Namibia shows that law enforcement officers often share information informally, sometimes through social media or personal networks”.[xx]
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. The CPIN doesn’t mention the role of road blocks 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”.[xxi]
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?
One expert with over a decade of experience of ethnographic research in Namibia reports that single mothers without extended family support face particular vulnerability because childcare responsibilities may prevent them from undertaking paid employment. In Namibia, where childcare is commonly provided through extended family networks, the absence of such support may leave women destitute and exposed to further exploitation. [xxii]
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.[xxiii]
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.[xxiv]
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.
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:
“The Namibian police data shows 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 achieve change by attacking those who demand it.
In 2020, the #ShutItAllDown protests led primarily by women against SGBV were attacked by armed police.
Our experiences are further confirmed by research that shows that, despite reforms, women suffer “social and economic inequalities”[xxv]; men are entrenched in positions of power[xxvi]; there is widespread corruption among public officials[xxvii], including the police[xxviii] and corruption is increasing; the police won’t act against gender-based violence[xxix].
SURVEY OF WOMEN IN OUR WORKSHOP
We did a survey among the women who attended 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.
- 32 women in total.
- 81% had reported the violence to the police.
- 50% had the police take a statement from them.
- 37% were told by the police afterwards that they lost their files.
- 44% were told by police that their report should be dealt with by the Traditional Authority
- 13% of reports were dealt with by the Traditional Authority: in some, the police were never informed; in others the police told women that they had to get the Traditional Authority to give permission for the police to deal with it and they never did.
- 63% said that police contacted their abuser to tell them they had reported the violence.
- 63% escaped forced marriage/threat of forced marriage.
- 88% tried to relocate within Namibia; 13% were found by the person who they were trying to escape from.
- 50% were destitute and this forced them to return to the person who abused them.
The December 2025 CPIN must be extensively revised. It reaches conclusions that are not supported by the evidence it cites and leaves out issues that are central to understanding the risks faced by women in Namibia. These include the role of Traditional Authorities, forced marriage, the risks to trafficking victims and the particular discrimination faced by Herero women. As a result, it does not provide a reliable basis for deciding whether women can obtain effective state protection or safely relocate within Namibia. We ask the Home Office to revise the CPIN so that it reflects the evidence and the lived experiences of women who have fled persecution in Namibia and claimed asylum in the UK.
27 July 2026
[i] CIVICUS, 2021 State of Civil Society Report: Challenging Exclusion and Claiming Rights (2021), chapter on Namibia/#ShutItAllDown (quoting Out-Right Namibia).
[ii] Legal Assistance Centre, “Namibia Gender Analysis 2017,” prepared for the Delegation of the European Union to Namibia (July 2017), https://www.lac.org.na/projects/grap/Pdf/Namibia_Gender_Analysis_2017.pdf
[iii] Home Office,“Country Policy and Information Note Namibia: Women fearing gender-based violence [CPIN],” version 1.0, (September 2021), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/616ea52ae90e07197a68c2b7/NAM_CPIN_Women_fearing_GBV.pdf, p.35 “In sources consulted (see Bibliography) CPIT could not find specific information on attitudes to, or the consequences of refusing a marriage, or information on ‘honour’ crimes.”
[iv] Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 2011 https://www.refworld.org/docid/4e4278b62.html
[v] Namibian Sun 2022, https://www.namibiansun.com/local-news/namibia-home-to-64-000-child-brides2022-03-
[vi] (Hinz & Gairiseb 2016, d)
[vii] Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare / UNFPA Child Marriage Study, 2020
[viii] Dr George Hamandishe Karekwaivanane, Expert Report (prepared for asylum proceedings, June 2026.
[ix] Dr George Hamandishe Karekwaivanane, Expert Report (prepared for asylum proceedings, June 2026.
[x] Oliver C Ruppel, “Women’s Rights and Customary Law in Namibia: A Conflict between Human and Cultural Rights?” Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Centre – Southern Africa Library, no.2 (15 July 2010).
[xi] Janine Ubink, Thomas McInerney, “Customary Justice: Perspectives on Legal Empowerment,” Legal and Governance ReformL Lessons Learned no.3 (2011), https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/142874/CustomaryJustice3.pdf
[xii] Manfred O Hinz, Customary Law Ascertained Volume 3: The customary law of the Nama, Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, and San Communities of Namibia (University of Namibia Press, 2016).
[xiii] The NGO Report to the UN Human Rights Committee for its 3rd Periodic Review of Namibia during the 140th Session (March 2024), submitted by a coalition of Namibian civil society organisations.
[xiv] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Namibia, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/NAM/CO/6 (12 July 2022), para. 27(c).
[xv] United Nations Namibia, Joint Field Visit Report: Katutura Gender-Based Violence Protection Unit, 19 April 2023 (published 23 August 2023)
[xvi] ‘Country Expert Report Dr Mattia Fumanti Senior Lecturer The University of St Andrews.
[xvii] Home Office,“Country Policy and Information Note Namibia: Women fearing gender-based violence [CPIN],” version 1.0, (September 2021), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/616ea52ae90e07197a68c2b7/NAM_CPIN_Women_fearing_GBV.pdf, 7.3.12, p.47.
[xviii] FCDO “Safety and security in Namibia” (2023)
[xix] DN Nyamai “Mapping Mobility in Namibia’s Secondary Cities Informal Settlements” [2024] Journal of Transport Geography.
[xx] A Kapitako “Social Media and Police-Community Relations: A Case Study” (University of Namibia 2016).
[xxi] Phil Sylvester, “Is Namibia Safe For Travelers 9 Tips to Avoid Trouble,” World Nomads Travel Insurance, (September 2020), https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/southern-africa/namibia/namibia-travel-safety
[xxii] Country Expert Report Dr Mattia Fumanti Senior Lecturer The University of St Andrews
[xxiii] Hands Off! “Sex work & violence in Namibia. Needs assessment report,” Aidsfonds, (July 2016), https://aidsfonds.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Needs%20Assessment%20Handsoff%20Namibia.pdf
[xxiv] Institute for Public Policy Research, “The NGO Report to the UN Human Rights Committee for its 3rd Periodic Review of Namibia during the 140th Session,” Supported by Centre for Civil and Political Rights, (March 2024).
[xxv] “Republic of Namibia, Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW), “National Gender policy 2010-2020,” (March 2010), https://1325naps.peacewomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/namibia_gender_2010-2020_en.pdf, p.4 ‘Women experience high rates of gender-based violence (GBV), and continued pervasive gender- and intra-household inequalities, which exacerbate poverty. This is more pronounced among the 44 per cent female-headed households in rural areas.’
[xxvi] “Republic of Namibia, Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW), “National Gender policy 2010-2020,” (March 2010), https://1325naps.peacewomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/namibia_gender_2010-2020_en.pdf, p.15, 16, 19.
[xxvii] Staff Reporter, “PM rails against inefficiency, corruption in public sector,” New Era Live, (July 16, 2015), https://neweralive.na/pm-rails-inefficiency-corruption-public-sector/
[xxviii] Afrobarometer dispatch no.635, “Namibians see police falling short of professional conduct and respect for citizens’ rights,” (April 28 2023), https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AD635-Namibians-see-police-as-falling-short-of-professional-conduct-Afrobarometer-26april23-1.pdf
[xxix] Kate Mukungu and Ndumba J. Kamwanyah, “Gender-Based Violence: Victims, Activism, and Namibia’s Dual Justice Systems,” in Victimology, ed. Davies, P and Tapley, J (London: Palgrave Macmillan, July 2020), pp.81-114.
All African Women's Group 