Tax laws in Namibia now treat all individuals equally, men or women, married or single. The Labour Act, Act No 11 of 2007 forbids discrimination in any aspect of employment on the basis of sex, marital status or family responsibilities, amongst other grounds. The Act guarantees 12 weeks of maternity leave to all female employees who have been working for the same employer for at least one year. The Government launched the revised National Gender Policy (2010-2020) in March 2010. The overarching goal is to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of both female and male persons in Namibia. Amongst other things, the policy framework aims to provide mechanisms and guidelines for all sectors and relevant stakeholders for planning, implementing and monitoring gender equality strategies and programmes in order to ensure effective strategies for gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Namibian Government through the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare embarked on an aggressive policy to eradicate all forms of gender based violence. This includes reviewing and strengthening existing laws against gender based violence, as well as holding an annual event of 16 Days Against Gender Based Violence and Human trafficking. The National Plan of Action on Gender Based Violence (GBV) 2012-2016 was launched to coordinate efforts of various stakeholders in combating gender based violence. The National GBV Plan of Action aims to create an enabling environment for GBV-related services, improved access to GBV prevention measures, improved access to GBV mitigation services, and strengthen integration and coordination of GBV programs. The Goals of the Plan of Action on Gender-Based Violence are to reduce the incidence of GBV and improve responses thereto. The Plan of Action focuses on four pillars namely prevention; responses to GBV; data collection and research; and coordination and monitoring. The envisaged outcomes of the GBV Plan of Action is to reduce GBV through prevention initiatives, improved services for survivors of GBV, increased understanding of GBV in Namibia and more efficient interventions as a result of improved coordination and monitoring. There is also a National Advisory Committee on GBV composed of Cabinet ministers and it is chaired by the Minister of Gender and Child Welfare. A number of rape cases have been prosecuted over the past years, and the courts imposed sentences ranging between 5 and 45 years imprisonment on convicted rapists3. However, a number of factors such as limited resources, shortage of expertise in dealing with violence against women and children, inadequate facilities in accommodating vulnerable witnesses, and withdrawals of cases by rape victims 3 See attached statistics on rape cases provided by the Namibian Police, marked as annexure “B” -4-