Why S-GBV survivors fear reporting to the police

Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (S-GBV) are not reporting violations because they fear being laughed at or blamed by police officers, a female lawyer said, alleging lack of trust on law enforcement agencies.

Christine Yacob, Program Manager for South Sudan Women Lawyers said policymakers must work on bridging the gap and building trust between survivors and law enforcement agencies.

She called for capacity building training for police officers on handling the S-GBV cases in the country.

“A lot has been done in training police to handle S-GBV cases and GBV cases. But there is a gap, the community still fears the police. Why do they fear the police?” she said.

“We need to bridge that gap by bringing together the community and the police and making the police friends to the communities and they will come, and report and they will stop fearing people in uniform.”

Mr. Yacob was speaking during a one-day community dialogue on the Impact of Stigma Faced by Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Survivors in Juba on Tuesday.

The one-day event was organized by the Steward Women Organization with support from the British Embassy.

– Be professional –

Deputy National Police Spokesperson Brigadier General James Dak Karlo called on the police to act professionally and not laugh at or criminalize those who report violations.

General Karlo, also head of the Special Protection Unit at National Police Service said it is the work of law enforcement officers to build trust with the communities, especially the S-GBV survivors.

“I am not saying police are contributing, but I am calling on police to be professional by training not to refuse anybody who is coming to report S-GBV cases by telling her or he it was his fault,” said Karlo.

“It may not their fault because they might have fallen in a trap. The police have to build confidence trust and respect with communities, because if communities lost trust on us, they would not come to us it was hard for us.”

“From 2013 to 2015, we just gain our trust and relationship back with communities in 2018 before this the survivors used to say police will be inside or culprits, not our side.”