There is increasing global concern regarding gender-based violence (GBV ) as a public health issue. World- wide, the estimated lifetime prevalence of GBV among women is between 15 and 71 per cent. Across Africa, estimates indicate a lifetime prevalence of between 25% and 48% (for example: 48% in Zambia, 47% in Kenya, 34% in Egypt, 30% in Uganda and 25% in South Africa) and an annual prevalence ranging between 10% and 26% (FHOK, 2010).
To help address the issue, the UN General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in (1993) expanded the scope of GBV to encompass physical, sexual and psychological violence, including threats and coercion occurring within families, in the general community, or condoned by the State (Sullivan, D. J. 1994). Evidence has shown that effective prevention programming is a key component of comprehensive strategy to reduce gender-based violence (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Zwi, 2002).
The African Union’s Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) of 2003 remains one of the most progressive legal instruments providing a comprehensive set of human rights for African women. Article 5 of the Maputo Protocol, for example, deals exclusively with women’s protection from harmful practices. The section outlaws all forms of FGM, scarification and medicalization of FGM. State parties are required to eradicate elements in traditional and cultural beliefs, stereotypes, practice which exacerbate violence against women and to end all forms of harmful practices which negatively affect the human rights of