Child Abuse & Rape: Campaign Aims to Stop Child Marriage The international campaign is particularly focusing on abuse of women and girls in Egypt, Syria and Sudan.
The “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence” is an international campaign that began on November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ends on December 10, Human Rights Day. The campaign’s aim is to educate the public about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at all levels: local, national, regional and international. level.
Particularly at risk are women and girls in:
Egypt -- where women are continually subjected to sexual harassment and where rape was used by Muslim Brotherhoodsupporters to intimidate women attending protests against former Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. Over 90 percent of Egyptian women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Egyptian women represent a quarter of the 91 million women who have undergone the brutal procedure in Africa.
Syria -- A new report issued by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network says Syria’s civil war "created a context ripe for violence against women, including sexual violence." The report names the deliberate use of kidnapping and rape of women and girls, especially during raids, at check points and within detention facilities as a means to pressure and humiliate family members and take revenge. Women -- with their children -- have also been used as human shields in the conflict.
The report further says that abuses against women have been a "deliberate tactic to defeat the other party from a symbolic and psychological perspective, making women desirable targets as the conflict rages on."
Women and girls have also been subjected to severe sexual abuse in refugee camps, with some desperate families selling their young daughters for money or forcing them to participate in “sex jihad” to service jihadi fighters.
Sudan –A woman can be publicly whipped in Sudan for violating 'public decency' laws, including wearing pants or uncovering her hair. Any man or police officer is allowed to accuse her and she can be sent before a judge for sentencing. According to reports, thousands of women and girls are reportedly arrested every year in Sudan for this “offense.”
The UN Women Regional Office for Arab States produced a short clip shedding light on some forms of violence women face all over the Arab region: Early marriage, domestic violence and women in conflict zones.
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