East Africa: New Reports Show Extreme, Massive
Violence Against Girls
The
Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
May 12, 2006
Yonas Abiye & Biruk Girma
Addis Ababa
Nine out of ten girls in East Africa are abused by the very
people who they are supposed to trust the most, a research conducted by the
African Child Policy Forum showed Thursday.
The research tells the story of their mothers tying them up;
friends driving them into prostitution; teachers psychologically abusing them;
boyfriends forcing them to have sex; and brothers kicking them.
Presenting the report of the research in the Second
International Policy Conference on the African Child: Violence Against Girls in
Africa held yesterday, the forum said the studies conducted reveals the bitter
truth and paints a real picture of the situation in which African girls find
themselves.
One Ethiopian woman articulated the cost of violence
committed by those closest to her when she said. “I have been subjected to
different forms of violence. However, the sexual abuse committed against me by
my own father could not get out of my mind.” “The studies we conducted are not
just an accumulation of facts and figures; they are the very real stories of
what these girls have experienced,” Dr. Assefa Bequele, Executive Director of
The African Child Policy Forum said presenting a report of the research.
“We must speak out against violence against children and
confront attitudes that tolerate it.
It is inexcusable that one in very two girls in Ethiopia
will marry before their 18th birthday; that thousands of girls are abducted to
serve as soldiers, domestic servants and sexual salves in Uganda. The Forum
believes girls in Africa are born to a high risk and that action must be taken
to address these issues.” The African Child Policy Forum conducted various types
of research for its Second International Policy Conference on the African Child:
Violence Against Girls in Africa for the two days conference, in which
officially opened in the presence FDRE President, H.E. Girma W. Georgis In
Ethiopia, every girl interviewed had experienced some form of violence at one
time or another and more than 90 per cent of girls questioned in Uganda had
experienced some form of sexual abuse.
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Among the prominent speakers at day one of the conference
were Joquim Chissano (Former President of Mozambique and current Chairperson of
the Africa Forum for African former Heads of State), Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, AU
Special Envoy and Chief Mediator for the Inter-Sudanese Peace talks in Darfur;
who is also the Chairman of The African Child Policy Forum’s International Board
of Trustees, Dr.Rima Salah, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Professor Jaap
Doek UN Special reporters on violence against women, and numerous others
Delivering his welcoming speech, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, AU Special Envoy and
Chief Mediator for the Inter-Sudanese Peace talks in Darfur; who is also the
Chairman of International Board of Trustee, The African Child Policy said tens
of thousands of women were likely to be victims of rape or attempted rape in
their lifetime. Girls were, he said, particularly vulnerable to this form of
violence from a very early age and throughout their childhood.
He said Africa can tackle the problem if the issue was
addressed with sensitivity as well as realism.
“And believe me,” he told participants of the conference,
“we can make a difference.” Representatives of child rights organizations,
members of the Pan African Parliament, African Policy makers, the AU, UN,
African Committee of experts on the rights and welfare of children and many
others are attending the conference which will end today.
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