Category Archives: Sexual violence

Malawi police face legal action over failure to investigate alleged rapes

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Lawyers move to make headway with inquiry into accusations of police abuses during post-election violence

A group of lawyers in Malawi is taking legal action against the police for failing to investigate allegations of rape against their officers during post-election protests.

Mphatso Iphani, a spokesperson for the Women Lawyers Association of Malawi, said that three months since the alleged attacks, “no concrete action has been taken, despite the sheer amount of evidence that the girls and women were assaulted”.

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Police in Bangladesh make arrest in connection with alleged rape of student

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Dhaka University demonstrators demand prompt action following reported rape of 21-year-old woman

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a man in connection with the alleged rape of a student at Dhaka University amid angry protests on campus.

More than 2,000 students and human rights activists – some brandishing placards asking: “Tell me, am I next?” – demonstrated this week following the alleged rape of the 21-year-old student. They demanded the death penalty for anyone found guilty of rape.

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Britain must spearhead action against sexual violence or relinquish the reins

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Only with senior government backing can the inertia gripping the global fight against sexual abuse in conflict be arrested

Rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict are deliberate crimes against humanity, employed as a tactic of war and terrorism to systematically brutalise entire populations.

They are entirely preventable, which is why I launched the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative (PSVI) in 2012 with UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie. From the start, we emphasised the crucial importance of addressing impunity. Without a realistic chance of justice being done, potential perpetrators of these crimes are unlikely to be deterred and the cycle of violence will continue.

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Hague and Jolie’s sexual violence scheme ‘letting survivors down’

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MPs blame failure to sustain momentum following William Hague’s departure from Foreign Office for project falling ‘far short’

A high-profile UK government programme to tackle sexual violence in conflict zones – launched by former foreign secretary Lord William Hague and Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie – has been criticised for falling far short of its ambitions and letting survivors down.

A review, published on Thursday by the aid watchdog, found that waning ministerial interest, severe funding cuts and a lack of senior leadership meant the scheme “never had a strategic vision” and as a result “nothing [was] done to translate … pledges into practical action”.

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‘My dignity is destroyed’: the scourge of sexual violence in Cox’s Bazar

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With rape and domestic abuse endemic in the lawless refugee camp, safe spaces have been set up to help the women affected

In a small, dark hut within the world’s largest refugee settlement, a fan hums quietly as Faizal speaks. He says that last month his 12-year-old sister was raped here in their home. The little girl sits in silence beside him wearing a pink headscarf and red dress.

Rape is endemic in the camp in Cox’s Bazar. Although the exact number of victims is unknown, many Rohingya women who experienced rape and torture fleeing Myanmar report facing sexual violence again in their new home.

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Whistleblowers on school paedophile ring in Afghanistan arrested

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Human rights defenders alleged that teachers and social workers were involved in abuse of more than 500 boys

Two people have been detained by Afghanistan’s intelligence services after they exposed a paedophile ring operating in some of the country’s schools.

Human rights organisations and the former president Hamid Karzai have called for the immediate release of Mohammed Mussa and Ehsanullah Hamidi, both well-known human rights defenders from Logar province, who were picked up by the National Directorate of Security last week when they were on their way to meet with the EU ambassador in Kabul.

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Nigeria launches first sex offender register

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Publicly accessible list will allow schools and hospitals to conduct background checks

Campaigners have hailed the launch of Nigeria’s first sex offender register as a vital step towards tackling reported cases of sexual abuse, which are rising across the country.

The publicly accessible onlineregister of people prosecuted for sexual violence since 2015 will allow public bodies and police authorities to conduct background checks and identify repeat offenders.

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Young Kurdish feminists make me hopeful for the future of the region

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A conference on sexual violence in Iraqi Kurdistan has given women an overdue opportunity to voice their experiences

When I received an email from the Kurdish feminist writer and activist Houzan Mahmoud, asking if I would speak at the first conference on sexual violence against women and girls to be held in Iraqi Kurdistan, I could barely contain my excitement.

Mahmoud, a campaigner for Kurdish and Iraqi women’s rights – “honour” killings, the rape and abduction of women in Iraq and the imposition of Islamic sharia law are among the areas she tackles – was supporting the Sofia Society, a group of roughly 40 young feminists.

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‘We lay like corpses’: Bangladesh’s 1970s rape camp survivors speak out | Lucy Lamble

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Award-winning documentary Rising Silence preserves the testimony of some of the 200,000 women abducted during the country’s war of independence

In 1971, during the nine-month war that gave Bangladesh its independence from then West Pakistan, four sisters – Amina, Maleka, Mukhlesa and Budhi Begum – were abducted by Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators. They were among the more than 200,000 women held in rape camps and were detained for two and a half months.

“Twenty-two of us would lie like corpses in that room,” says Maleka as she explains how her elder sister Buhdi, “unable to bear the pain”, died before they were released.

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British government takes global lead on violence against women and girls

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Seven-year, £67.5m initiative aims to build on existing successes in Africa and Asia and explore new approaches

Britain has become the biggest government funder of programmes to prevent violence against women and girls globally after launching a seven-year project targeting countries with some of the highest levels of abuse.

The £67.5m programme will scale up projects that have already shown success in reducing violence across Africa and Asia, and will pilot and research new ideas to tackle the global crisis.

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Nobel peace prize winners launch fund for wartime rape survivors

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Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad set $100m fundraising goal as they spearhead push to provide money, healthcare and education

Nobel laureates Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad have launched a fund to provide reparations for survivors of wartime rape.

The Global Survivors Fund will provide tailored support to help people recover from the emotional and physical trauma they have experienced. This could be in the form of financial compensation, support to access healthcare services or return to education, or assistance with getting somewhere to live.

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Malawi protesters demand inquiry into allegations of rape by police officers

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EU and Britain ramp up pressure on government to act as street demonstrators converge on Lilongwe

Hundreds of rights campaigners have taken to the streets of Malawi’s capital to call for a government investigation into allegations of rape by police officers during ongoing post-election violence.

The EU ambassador to Malawi condemned the alleged sexual violence and called for “light to be shed on what happened.” The British high commissioner also reportedly called for a thorough investigation.

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Nusrat Jahan Rafi: 16 sentenced to death over Bangladesh murder

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Student set on fire after refusing to withdraw sexual harassment claim against headteacher

Sixteen Bangladeshis have been sentenced to death for the murder of a 19-year-old student, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was burned to death in April after complaining of being sexually harassed by her school principal.

Among those found guilty were former members of the school’s administration, teachers and pupils – 12 of the 16 having confessed to participating in the killing in which Rafi was lured on to the school’s roof, doused in paraffin and set alight.

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Violence is hurting South Africa: we need new thinking to break the cycle

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Three activists argue that a radical approach is required in a country where conflict and rape are endemic

The spotlight on South Africa may have subsided with the departure of the royals, but foreigners are camping outside the UN refugee agency in Cape Town, clamouring to leave because they are no longer safe.

Last month brought a surge in xenophobic attacks in and around Johannesburg, and there were huge protests in Cape Town and across the country against the government’s failure to deal with rising violence against women. Gender-based violence is an hourly occurrence.

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Rise in children forced to join militias raises fresh fears over South Sudan

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Growing number of young fighters combined with sexual violence and ethnic tensions threatens return to civil war, UN warns

UN investigators have warned that despite the fragile peace in South Sudan, the recruitment of children into the army and militias is on the increase as each side seeks to bolster infantry numbers.

The investigators also warned that sexual violence against women and localised ethnic violence are increasing tensions that could return the country to civil war.

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Nigeria detained children as young as five over ‘Boko Haram links’ – report

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Human Rights Watch says thousands of children were detained in distressing conditions by military over last six years

The Nigerian military arrested thousands of children it suspected of involvement with Boko Haram, holding them in squalid conditions for years in some cases, according to a new report.

Some of the children detained were as young as five, and others described being crammed into overwhelmingly hot, crowded cells in a notorious military facility in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri called Giwa barracks, said a report released by Human Rights Watch.

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‘The silence is suffocating’: family abuse ‘epidemic’ uncovered in Samoa | Eleanor Ainge Roy

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The beautiful Polynesian island is home to a fiercely traditional society rife with domestic violence

Blood on the walls. Bruises like smashed plums. As long as Sefina* can remember, family violence has been part of her life. She watched her mother routinely attacked by her stepfather. “Sorry,” her mother would whisper afterwards to the children.

Then, Sefina’s elder sister was nearly killed by a group of male relatives for breaking the curfew. “Sorry,” her sister told her as she later left the island for good.

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‘I lost my soul’: the teenage girls lured by traffickers from Nigerian camps | Philip Obaji Jr

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Traumatised refugee children are being enticed by tempting offers of escape from poverty, then sold into slavery – but survivors are fighting back

At the age of 15, Aisha and Halima were abducted from their compound in north-eastern Nigeria by Boko Haram insurgents. For a year they were held in captivity, and were raped. They managed to escape their captors, and find their way across the desert to a camp in Madinatu, in Borno state.

Though they had made it to relative safety, life in the camp was hard for the traumatised teenagers. They had had no contact with their family since their abductions, and there was little to eat. They had to fend off unwelcome advances by local community law enforcers, including members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, who, they say, offered food in exchange for sex.

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‘Before I was kidnapped I had friends’: the girl soldiers of South Sudan | Samuel Okiror

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A reintegration programme has helped 360 girls leave armed groups in Yambio county but for many the trauma of sexual violence persists

Late one night in April 2015, 13-year-old Patricia* and her sister, who was 11, were kidnapped from their beds by rebel forces fighting the government in South Sudan.

The girls were taken from their home in a raid on their village by the South Sudan National Liberation Movement in Yambio county, not far from the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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‘Men fear us’: Kampala’s market women unite against harassment

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Tired of suffering physical and verbal abuse at one of the Ugandan capital’s largest markets, female vendors are holding perpetrators to account

All photography by Alice McCool

Some men are in the habit of touching women, says Nora Baguma, a vendor at Nakawa market, in Uganda’s capital Kampala. “We call them bayaye,” she says, sitting at her banana stall.

“We give men punishment for this. I take men to the office if they cause problems. They can suspend that man for a week or a month,” Baguma explains. “It makes them stop. They fear us.”

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