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Jada, a 16-year-old girl, was invited to a party. When she got there, the host gave her a drink of punch and after taking the drink, she passed out and was not aware of every other thing that happened at the party. A few weeks later, she realised that she had been raped and that her photo was taken while she was lying on the ground unconscious. She only became aware of what happened that night when photos of her naked body started circulating on the Internet. As if that was not worrisome enough, some Internet users started taking pictures of themselves mimicking Jada’s pose while she was lying unconscious on the ground and posted those pictures on the Internet with the hash tag #jadapose, which some have termed as a social media low. Some even posted videos, including dance videos to mock her.
But in a rare show of courage, she has decided to come out and speak about the whole incident. Jada, who revealed that she was angry about the whole thing, said, “I had no control. I didn’t tell anyone to take my clothes off and do what they did to me.” And about her reason for coming out, she said, “There’s no point in hiding. Everybody has already seen my face and my body, but that’s not what I am and who I am.”
What is heartwarming is the support Jada has received since she came out to tell her side of the story. These people have also come up with counter hash tags like: #jadacounterpose and #standwithjada with the aim of drumming up support for Jada and also to discourage attacks on the female gender by males. Even the #jadapose meme has been hijacked and is now being used to attack its initial aim. Continue reading “Drugged, Raped, Mocked but Undaunted: I #StandwithJada, by Darasimi Oshodi”
All 13 male students of the University of Ghana who were accused of inserting their fingers into the private part of an alleged female thief have been discharged.
The students who were charged on three counts of conspiracy to commit crime, assault and causing unlawful harm were discharged on Tuesday by an Accra Circuit court.
Lawyer for the 13, Rockson Dafiamekpor told Accra based Joy Fm that the discharge of his clients was in order because although they were charged with conspiracy to commit crime “no specific crime was specified.”
“We are saying since March last year when this matter broke, we are in July 2012, this is about 15 or 16 months and prosecution has failed to initiate any proceedings in this matter, its always been adjournment one after the other.
This is the English translation of OneWorld’s ‘Paradijs voor pedo’s’, an article by Sanne Terlingen that was originally published in Dutch on 28 June 2012 here.
Ghana is ideal hunting ground for Dutch child sex tourists. Paedophiles present themselves as benevolent benefactors and, despite Dutch and Ghanaian law, enjoy impunity.
Ruth is 17 and, since 3 am, has been awake. Nerves. Why? She wonders. This is her tenth time in court, even though she knows her opponent, the Dutch millionaire, won’t show up – just like all the other times.
But, just in case, at exactly 9 am, she takes her place on the wooden bench in courtroom 20 at the Coco Affairs Court in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.
Her Uncle Asare, who made the five-hour trip from his village, is sitting to her left. To her right, her ward ties a red ribbon on Ruth’s pigtails to match the turtleneck shirt she put on for the occasion. “So the judge can see she is decent girl,” says the Ghanaian woman who has been taking care of Ruth since they together reported the case one and an half years ago.
“I was eight years old when I was first raped,” says Ruth, “he pretended to take care of me and paid my school fees.”
Whenever he visited Ghana, he asked for me to be brought to him to come and collect my money. Every time I had to stay and sleep with him. According to Ruth, the man, who is from the Dutch province of Limburg, has abused at least two other girls. “I know because I slept next to them when he did it,” she says.
He is not the only Dutch paedophile in Ghana. Within seconds, the Dutch expatriate community can pull up a number of compatriots with paedophilic tendencies. ‘The Meat Merchant’, a rich importer whose affection for small children was reported to the police by his own daughter. A 50-something who likes wearing Ghanaian clothes and has had a “more than father-son” relationship with several boys who lived with him, as confirmed by his own housemates. Then there’s ‘Tall Ad’, whose neighbours describe how he drives slowly through the streets seeking “water-vending girls who smile back at him”. Ones to his liking are invited to his home for fried rice and watching movies on his laptop. Continue reading “Ghana: A Paradise for Pedophiles”
Almost every minute of every day in different parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a woman is raped. So says a new study published by the American Journal of Public Health, the AJPH. The study says the incidence of sexual assault is 26 times higher than United Nations figures.
Jocelyne Sambira reports.
Duration: 2’36”
The study examined detailed household data gathered from women between the ages of 15 and 49 living in the DR Congo.
The data shows that 400,000 women are raped every year in the Congo which translates to over a thousand raped every day, 48 raped every hour and four raped every five minutes.
Margot Wallström, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said the report helps to better understand the problem.
“This brings more clarity to the phenomenon of sexual violence. It also confirms what we know from before and that is sexual violence is grossly underreported.”
The rate of sexual violence quoted in the new study is significantly higher than the previous estimate of 16,000 rapes reported in one year by the UN.
Wallström explained the discrepancy between the two reports.
“We do make a distinction between conflict-related sexual violence – how it is being used as a kind of weapon of war and what is also studied here – which is intimate partner sexual violence and domestic violence. And finally I would say that there is a difference in the way we count because the United Nations also has to verify these figures. When we report, we also should do it in such a way that we can do follow-up, that there is assistance to be given to the victims.”
But the expert on sexual violence also believes it’s time to move beyond the numbers.
“As much as we want to describe the magnitude of the problem, it must take us beyond counting the number of rapes for example. It must bring us into how we can prevent it. How we can do peacekeeping better.”
More important though are the people behind the figures. Margot Wallstom again:
“I remember this young woman who I met in Walikale and she said that she had been taken out of her home the night before she was getting married and had been gang raped and her whole future destroyed in a way. And she was not only devastated but she was also angry. I could feel that that she was also furious that this could be done to her. And she said that a dead rat is worth more than a woman who has been raped.”
A 35-year-old never-married woman has bitten off her new boyfriend’s sexual organ during sexual intercourse in a remote village in the African country of Chad.
The woman, Hawa, had never heard of anything called oral sex was asked to perform it on her experienced partner whose wife had traveled on a business trip to Malaysia and took the opportunity to ask the mistress for the service.
Everything was going well until the man’s cell phone which was in his pocket ranged. The unexpected sound of the phone which was just inches away from the woman’s mouth caused a shock which accidentally led to her biting off the man’s organ.
No charges have been pressed against the woman yet and the man, Idisu, has not yet made any public statement. He is said to be recuperating in a community clinic outside the village of Altonodji. Doctor say the injury is not life threatening but it is not yet clear whether the cheating husband can embark on such mission again in the future.
Will process result in any tangible gains for the majority of women who participated fully in the struggle?
Egyptian women in the recent uprising
International Women’s Day is observed each year on the 8th of March since the 1900s. This year’s commemoration happens just weeks after the women of North Africa and the Middle East courageously, and alongside their male counterparts, participated fully in the struggle for freedom, equality, democracy, participatory governance and justice in their own respective countries. They participated as equals, were exposed to the same cruel conditions as male participants, suffered the same consequences as everyone else and did not seek any special treatment but change with equal opportunities for all. The question worth asking at this stage is:
will their full participation during the revolution result in their full involvement and representation in the structures that are currently deliberating the future of their countries?
or will they be marginalised and pushed back to their ‘traditional’ roles in society?
Commenting on South Africa’s situation, Sheila Meintjies notes the significant role that SA women played in the fight against apartheid but asks “how would this participation be translated into electoral politics and representative democracy?
Would women’s presence be reflected in political and material gains for women in society?”
These questions remain relevant in light of the disturbing developments in Egypt. The brutal and sexual assault on CBS reporter Lara Logan during the uprisings is again a stark reminder of the challenges that women still faces since the first celebration of Women’s Day in 1911.
The reality for Egyptian women at present is that they have been completely marginalised in the nation building process with very few of them having been appointed to serve in structures tasked with deciding the country’s future. The complete absence of women in the Constitutional Committee amending Egypt’s constitution makes mockery of the January 25 revolution which was moulded around the ideals of equality; freedom and the involvement of all citizens in decisions affecting their lives. Women organisations and other movements like the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights and the Egyptian Coalition for Civic Education and Women’s Participation have already raised concerns over these developments. A few weeks back, the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights circulated a petition which raised concerns over the exclusive nature of the Constitutional committee. The Egyptian Coalition consisting of around 102 NGO’s also issued a statement condemning the amendments to the Constitution which will make men the only candidates eligible for appointment to the position of the President.
Countries who have undergone Egypt’s journey in recent years would know of the necessity to have constitutions that best represent the aspirations and dreams of all citizens. In order for Egypt’s constitution to be legitimate, the process of making it must be inclusive and speak to the diversity of views and needs of its entire people and be highly considerate of women’s issues and concerns. South Africa’s Constitution which is regarded as the best in the world is a direct product of processes which never fell short of seeking to encompass the multiplicity of views within the nation. As a result, South Africa’s Constitution guarantees women’s rights; and affords equal treatment of all people irrespective of gender, sex, race, religion, belief, culture and so on. Egypt can also learn from the constitutions of countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Iraq and Nepal which guarantees women’s rights and political rights.
No one denies that different conditions exist in all countries, however, the rights of all people including women transcend boundaries. The importance of these rights also find expression in the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Beijing Platform for Action, the Protocol to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of women in Africa; and the Millennium Development Goals. It is no secret that Egyptian women have a lot of challenges to deal with and these challenges are openly discussed in various reports by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights on the status of Egyptian women. These reports speak to the needs for the strengthening of laws on sexual harassment, rape, women’s health and reproductive rights, domestic violence, honor crimes, female circumcision, human trafficking of women as sex workers, divorce laws, inheritance laws, ownership and property rights. In light of these challenges it is clear that it can only be through participating fully in the Constitution making process and other structures building Egypt that women of that country can best ensure that the future holds a better and brighter life for Egypt’s daughters and mothers.
As the deliberations continue women should hang on to the revolution spirit and ensure that it delivers for them as well. Egypt’s revolution would be half achieved if it does not speak to the needs, dreams, and aspirations of all the people who made it possible.
Widespread rape and other sexual violence are depriving millions of children of an education in conflict-affected countries, UNESCO’s 2011 Global Monitoring Report warns.
The report, “The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education,” calls for an end to the culture of impunity surrounding sexual violence, with strengthened monitoring of human rights violations affecting education, a more rigorous application of existing international law and the creation of an International Commission on Rape and Sexual Violence, backed by the International Criminal Court.
The international courts set up in the wake of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda have firmly established rape and other sexual violence as war crimes, yet these acts remain widely deployed weapons of war.
Of the rapes reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one-third involved children (and 13% are against children under the age of 10). Unreported rape in conflict-affected areas of in the east of the country may be 10 to 20 times the reported level. That would translate into 130,000 to 260,000 incidents in 2009 alone.
In the report, 15-year-old Minova from South Kivu province in DRC describes her experience. “I was just coming back from the river to fetch water. … Two soldiers came up to me and told me that if I refuse to sleep with them, they will kill me. They beat me and ripped my clothes. One of the soldiers raped me. …My parents spoke to a commander and he said that his soldiers do not rape, and that I am lying. I recognized the two soldiers, and I know that one of them is called Edouard.”
Sexual violence damages education on many levels. Girls subjected to rape often experience grave physical injury – with long-term consequences for school attendance. The psychological effects, including depression, trauma, shame and withdrawal, have devastating consequences for learning. Many girls drop out of school after rape because of unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS, as well as other forms of ill health, trauma, displacement or stigma.
Robbing children of a secure home environment and traumatizing the communities that they live in profoundly impairs prospects for learning. Sexual violence creates a wider atmosphere of insecurity that leads to a decline in the number of girls able to attend school.
Many countries that have emerged from violent conflict – including Guatemala and Liberia – continue to report elevated levels of rape and sexual violence, suggesting that practices that emerge during violent conflict become socially ingrained. While the majority of victims are girls and women, boys and men are at risk in some countries.
The report describes monitoring systems for rape and other sexual violence as among the weakest in the international system with United Nations agencies and others relying on a fragmented and often anecdotal body of evidence.
The report calls for change on four major fronts:
An International Commission on Rape and Sexual Violence should be established to document the scale of the problem, identify perpetrators and assess government responses. The Under-Secretary-General for UN Women should head the commission, with national review exercises coordinated through the Office of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
All governments in conflict-affected states should be called upon to develop national plans for curtailing sexual violence, drawing on best practices. Donors and United Nations agencies should coordinate efforts to back these plans.
Strengthen United Nations coordination to combat sexual violence. The United Nations Entity on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — UN Women — should be mandated, resourced and equipped to coordinate action across the United Nations system and oversee enforcement of Security Council resolutions.
The International Criminal Court could play a far more active role in enforcing Security Council Resolutions, and could inform United Nations, regional and national efforts to document levels of rape and other sexual violence, establish benchmarks for combating impunity, provide training, and strengthen the role of women in local and national leadership positions.
Mary Robinson, co-chair of the Civil Society Advisory Group to the UN on Women, Peace and Security, writes in the report: “Children living with the psychological trauma, the insecurity, the stigma, and the family and community breakdown that comes with rape are not going to realize their potential in school.
That is why it is time for the Education for All community to engage more actively on human rights advocacy aimed at ending what the UN Secretary-General has described as “our collective failure” to protect those lives destroyed by sexual violence.” The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, cautions that the world is not on track to achieve by 2015 the six Education for All goals that over 160 countries signed up to in 2000. Although there has been progress in many areas, most of the goals will be missed by a wide margin – and conflict is one of the major reasons.
The report is endorsed by four Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Oscar Arias Sánchez, Shirin Ebadi, José Ramos-Horta and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Introducing the report, Archbishop Tutu says: “It documents in stark detail the sheer brutality of the violence against some of the world’s most vulnerable people, including its schoolchildren, and it challenges world leaders of all countries, rich and poor, to act decisively.” Of the total number of primary school age children in the world who do not attend school, 42% – 28 million – live in poor countries affected by conflict.[ad#Adsense-200by200sq]
