The Pan-African advocacy group African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) reports that nine out of 10 girls in Eastern Africa have suffered physical or psychological abuse, including rape at the hands of relatives. According to the study, 99 percent of women in Kenya have been beaten, and this primarily by their mothers, while 94 percent of them in Uganda reported being victims compared with Ethiopia´s 84 percent. (17-MAY-06)
This article was first released today by PLUS NEWS, a UN-run news service covering HIV / Aids related issues.The article has been edited for republication here by HRH / Nivatiti Nandujja. Photo of Masai girl, unrelated to the content of this story: HRH / Maria Dahle.
Assefa Bequele, the head of the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), a child advocacy group, revealed the fact that, in eastern Africa nine out of ten girls are abused on a regular basis by the people they trust most. This was in a report released in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on Wednesday, to coincide with a two-day conference on violence against girls in Africa. Nearly one in two girls has been raped in Uganda, 29.7 percent in Ethiopia and 26.3 percent in Kenya, but reporting of sexual abuse to the police is low across all countries with Ethiopia as the lowest (1.5 percent) and 4 percent in Uganda, according to ACPF.
Violence against women and girls begins at home
Yakin Ertürk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women revealed that violence against women and girls starts in homes where they should be protected instead. In Ethiopia, one in every two girls is a victim of unwanted sexual touching, 18.9 percent are regularly hit with a stick, while 55, 2 percent sometimes. 21.2 percent of the women are usually hit on the head and 16.5 percent whipped with belts, according to the ACPF. -We must speak out against violence against children; it is inexcusable that one in every two girls in Ethiopia will marry before their 18th birthday; thousands of girls are abducted to serve as soldiers, domestic servants and sexual slaves in Uganda.
What is the way forward?
–The group interviewed 1,500 women aged between 18 and 24 in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Each of them was asked to testify about abuses that might have happened during their childhoods.Several recommendations on the way forward, including involving children as part of the solution, combating traditional often sexist attitudes that sanction violence and calling upon governments to develop effective policies and laws against violence have been suggested.
