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International human rights organisation, Equality Now, has called African governments to strengthen legal protection mechanisms to protect children against sexual violence.
In a statement this week, the organisation said there were one in every five women or girls have experienced sexual assault before turning 18 in Sub Saharan Africa, according to the UNICEF 2024 Report.
The statement was issued during the 45th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Maseru this week.
Sexual violence: Governments urged to strengthen laws to protect children
While member states and stakeholders have made commendable progress in advancing the rights of children in Africa, the pace of progress remained disturbingly slow, affected by resource limitations, climate change-related and conflict emergencies, inadequate participation of children in planning and budgeting for programs, and essential services affecting them increasing online risks and harms, legal protection gaps, and inadequacies leading to impunity and lack of sustained protection of children against harmful practices, sexual exploitation, violence, and abuse, Equality Now said.
The organisation therefore charged governments to repeal discriminatory laws as well as address gaps in legal definitions of rape.
“The UNICEF 2024 Report reveals that more than 79 million girls and women (over one in five) across sub-Saharan Africa have experienced rape or sexual assault before turning 18. When online or verbal abuse is included, the number of girls and women affected rises to 650 million globally (over one in five), underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive prevention and support strategies to address all forms of violence and abuse against girls effectively,” the statement said.
“According to the same report, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of child victims of sexual violence globally. In Conflict settings with weak institutions girls face an even greater risk, with the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in childhood slightly more than 1 in 4.”
In its own Equality Now 2024 report dubbed Barriers to Justice: RAPE IN AFRICA, LAW, PRACTICE AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE, the organisation said there were “key gaps in rape laws in 45 African Countries that result in routine denial of justice to survivors of sexual violence including children”.
“The gaps include laws allowing the perpetrator to walk free on reaching some form of “settlement,” including marrying the victim; laws framed in terms of morality rather than bodily integrity, thereby perpetuating a cycle of violence and discrimination; laws that explicitly permit rape in marriage, even of children; laws permitting judicial discretion to reduce charges or define evidence based on a stereotyped assessment of the complainant’s behavior; laws that fail to recognise true consent is impossible in situations of dependency or extreme vulnerability; laws or practices inhibiting investigation or prosecution of sexual assault; and laws requiring witness corroboration and other overly burdensome evidence. We urge the Committee to encourage all Member States to:
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- Repeal discriminatory laws, address gaps in legal definitions of rape, and failures in implementation that deny survivors access to justice. Strengthening laws and regulations to protect children from all forms of sexual violence, and invest in the people, resources, and systems needed to implement them.
- Create public awareness on sexual violence as a human rights issue to challenge and change social and cultural norms that allow sexual violence to occur and discourage children from seeking help.
- Equipping every child with accurate, accessible, and age-appropriate information that empowers them to recognize and report sexual violence.
- Ensuring that every child victim and survivor has access to services that support justice and healing and reduce the risk of further harm,” the statement reads.
Equality Now also implored governments to build improved national data systems to monitor progress and ensure accountability for perpetrators of sexual violence.
