New report paints grim picture of sex crimes
Dar es Salaam. At least 3,709 incidents of defilement were reported in the first six months of 2019, a new report by the Legal and Human Rights Centere(LHRC) says.
The report also states that a total of 688 incidents of sodomy was recorded by police during the same period. This is 141 incidents more than registered in 2018.
Defilement incidents are 126 more than those reported during the same period in 2018.
Launched on April 29, 2020, the Report also shows increased cases of child pregnancy after over 836 incidents were documented by LHRC last year.
“LHRC’s media survey reveals that 84 percent of incidents of Violence Against Children (VAC) reported by media in 2019 involved sexual violence,” reads part of the document.
The said incidents were reported in Tabora, Njombe, Geita, Songwe, Simiyu, Pwani, Ruvuma, Kilimanjaro, Katavi, Mara and Dodoma, according to report.
Other regions are Kagera, Mwanza, Iringa, Morogoro, Mbeya, Lindi, Manyara, Arusha Morogoro, Tanga, Singida, Rukwa and Dar es Salaam.
Furthermore, report reveals that most sexual VAC acts were perpetrated in homes, streets and school settings, pointing out male teachers and parents, bodaboda drivers as main perpetrators.
According to report, LHRC documented 24 cases of teachers implicated in sexual VAC, some of them head teachers, who were either arrested, charged and convicted by judicial organs after being found guilty.
Contributing factors leading to increased sexual VAC include the long distance to schools putting girls’ students at greater risk of rape and sodomy, minimum speed of investigation and prosecuting perpetrators and increasing parenting gap.
“The tendency of the community and family members being reluctant or deliberately undermining court proceedings by refusing to testify or convincing victims to become hostile witnesses due to what they refer as ‘concealing family shame’, low awareness on accessing justice, poverty, corruption, and witchcraft beliefs are among the other reasons,” reads another part of report.
Regarding child pregnancies, the report shows that - for the period 2018 and 2019 - LHRC recorded more than 2,543 incidents, noting that it was an indication that children were subjected to unprotected sexual acts.
“Child pregnancy, sodomy and rape put them at increased risk of HIV infection, which in turn affects the 90-90-90 target of ending AIDS epidemic,” reads report in part.
Report recommends an increment of the budget for implementation of the National Plan for Action to End Violence Against Women and Children in Tanzania (NPA-VAWC) in order to effectively and efficiently address VAC and VAW, which have reached alarming levels.
