Marital Rape

Malawi's commitment to addressing gender-based violence has been pronounced in numerous instruments such as the Constitution of the Republic; the ratification of international, continental and regional instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),3 the Protocol to the African Charter4 and the Addendum to the 1997 SADC Declaration on Violence Against Women5 respectively. At National level Malawi has put in place policies such as Malawi National Platform for Action, the national gender policy (NGP) and the National Strategy to Combat Gender-based Violence. Despite all the aforementioned initiatives Malawian men and women still suffer the plight of domestic violence. As Nelson Mandela puts it the 'the world is hungry for action not words'. In this research the author is of the view that legislation on domestic violence would have an impact on curbing domestic violence. However the Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill has been looming for more than 5 years without being passed into law. This research aimed at finding out the reasons.