{"id":32409,"date":"2019-02-09T04:22:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-09T04:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32409"},"modified":"2019-02-09T04:22:29","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T04:22:29","slug":"sierra-leones-president-declares-rape-a-national-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32409","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone’s president declares rape a national emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The brutal rape<\/a> of a young girl by her uncle has become a rallying point in\u00a0<\/span>Sierra Leone<\/a>\u00a0for a campaign that has pushed President Julius Maada Bio to declare the prevalence of sexual violence<\/a> a national emergency.<\/p>\n

The five-year-old girl, whose identity has been kept secret for her own safety, has been paralysed from the waist down since a 28-year-old male relative raped her a year ago, crushing her spine.<\/p>\n

“She may never walk again, and I want vengeance for what has happened,” her grandmother told the Reuters news agency, sitting next to the girl in her wheelchair in a Freetown medical clinic.<\/p>\n

“The man who did this ruined her life and deserves to spend his life in prison.”<\/p>\n

Following months of campaigning by activists, the president said those convicted of sexual offences against minors would face life sentences.<\/p>\n

“Some of our families practise a culture of silence and indifference towards sexual violence, leaving victims even more traumatised,” Bio told a crowd at the State House on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“We as a nation must stand up and address this scourge,” he said.<\/p>\n

“With this declaration, I have also directed the following: that all government hospitals must provide free medical treatment and certificate to every victim of rape and sexual abuse,” he added.<\/p>\n

Taboo topic\u00a0<\/h2>\n

According to police statistics, reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence nearly doubled last year to over 8,500, a third of which involved a minor.<\/p>\n

Activists, including First Lady Fatima Bio, say the actual figures are much higher as most cases are never reported.<\/p>\n

Gender-based violence is traditionally seen as a taboo topic in Sierra Leone. Only 12 years ago, its parliament passed the first gender equality laws in 46 years of independence, following efforts by women’s rights<\/a> groups.<\/p>\n

In December, the first lady led a demonstration in the capital to raise awareness on the issue, and has since launched her “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign on violence against girls across West Africa.<\/p>\n

Dr Olabisi Claudius Cole, head of the Rainbo Initiative that provides free medical and psychosocial services for survivors of gender-based violence, called the president’s declaration a landmark in tackling sexual violence in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

\n

Thank you to The President of Sierra Leone for this morning declaring a national state of emergency on sexual and gender-based violence. Here is the speech we delivered in front of the President, First Lady and other honourable ministers this morning at State House \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddf1 pic.twitter.com\/SByVml1IAB<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rainbo Initiative (@RainboCentres) February 7, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The brutal rape of a young girl by her uncle has become a rallying point in\u00a0Sierra Leone\u00a0for a campaign that has pushed President Julius Maada Bio to declare the prevalence of sexual violence a national emergency. The five-year-old girl, whose identity has been kept secret for her own safety, has been paralysed from the waist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}