Zimbabwe urged to fully implement existing laws on sexual violence

An alliance of five child rights organisations, Joining Forces Zimbabwe (JFZ) said on Wednesday while the
country has laws to protect girls and women from sexual violence, it is
not fully implementing them to eliminate the social ill.
In a statement, JFZ said the continued sexual abuse of young girls was a
social ill that undermined the quest for equity and quality of life for
the girl child.
Collectively, more still needs to be done to strengthen prevention of
sexual abuse and timeous response to the same.
The JFZ said the recent reports of pre-teen girls from Tsholotsho and
Bindura getting pregnant due to sexual abuse were shocking and showed
that the violation of girls' rights continued unabated.
It said the cases had shown that children needed to empowered to
recognise abuse, have more safe spaces and effective mechanisms for
child friendly reporting.
We applaud the reporting of such cases in order for justice to be
served because reporting sexual abuse of girls is critical in bringing
perpetrators to account, it said.
Joining Forces Zimbabwe was formed in 2017 and comprises Plan
International, Save the Children International, SOS Childrens Villages
International, Terre des Hommes International Federation and World
Vision International.
The organisations want to use the collective power to accelerate change
to secure children their rights and end violence against them through
piloting and scaling innovative and effective approaches worldwide that
are driven by the voices and needs of children.