Peacebuilding &conflict transformation A ... - Peaceworkafrica

▶ The fear of violence may prevent a woman from insisting on the use of condomor other safe sex methods.▶ Myths such as ‘having sex with a virgin will cure you of HIV’ result in rapeand sexual abuse of very young girls.▶ Violence and coerced sex can increase a woman’s physical vulnerability toHIV because of the damage done to membranes in the genital tract.▶ Women and girls may be infected with the HIV virus whilst being raped 53 .▶ Raped girls and women may not report the violent act due to the stigmainvolved. Based on this, the victims cannot access health care and testing facilitiesafter the incidence of rape.▶ A woman is less likely to a) discuss HIV risk reduction with her partner orb) disclose her HIV positive status to her partner as a result of fearing violentretaliation.7.4 Violence and lawThe following statements may be food for thought 54 :▶ One of the main functions of law is to regulate violence. Law enforcement isthe main means of regulating non-military violence in society.▶ States claim a monopoly on violence practiced within the confines of a specificterritory.▶ Governments regulate the use of violence through legal systems governingindividuals and political authorities. This includes the establishment of lawsand courts, the police and military. Civil societies authorize some amount ofviolence, exercised through police and military power, to maintain the statusquo and enforce laws.▶ Violent acts that are not carried out by the military or police and that are notin self‐defence are usually classified as crimes, although not all crimes are violentcrimes.▶ German political theorist Hannah Arendt noted: “Violence can be justifiable,but it will never be legitimate… No one questions the use of violence inself‐defence, because the danger is not only clear but also present, and the endjustifying the means is immediate 55 ”.▶ In the 20th century, the actions of governments may have killed more than260 million of their own people through police brutality, execution, massacre,slave labour camps, and sometimes through intentional famine.7 . V i o l e n c e a n d … 181