Abuse

Two out of five male South African pupils say they have been raped, according to a study suggesting sexual abuse of boys is endemic in the country's schools. The survey, published in BioMed Central's International Journal for Equity in Health, showed that boys were most frequently assaulted by adult women, followed closely by other schoolchildren.

South African rape survivors are not receiving vital anti-HIV treatment due to ignorance and a lack of basic treatment procedure at government health facilities and justice departments, new research shows.

A shocking child sex exploitation study has revealed how Cape Town children are being increasingly drawn into a web of prostitution and drug abuse - often because they are sole breadwinners.

One out of every three children is having sex at the age of 10, and 17 out of 100 will deliberately spread the virus if they know they are HIV-positive.

The prevalence of sexual violence, particularly among children, has led an NGO in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province to focus on informing children about their rights and what to do in case of abuse.

Government should provide rape victims with medical and legal assistance because medical and forensic evidence could be the only corroboration of such complaints, Parliament's justice committee heard yesterday. This comes after a clause in the draft Sexual Offences Bill, which compels the state to pay all medical costs of rape survivors, has been put on the backburner until the cost implications for the state have been determined. Now it has been argued that the clause should be reinstated in the bill because the gathering of evidence through such a service might be the only way of gaining a conviction. Lorna Martin, of the forensic medicine and toxicology division at the University of Cape Town, told the committee the medical management of rape survivors involves not only treating the rape survivor for sexually transmitted infections but involves a detailed medico-legal examination, which includes documentation of all injuries, both physical and genital, and the collection of all potential forensic evidence from the body of the complainant, including trace and biological evidence. Martin suggested that many of the services needed to achieve this were already in provincial budgets, so it is clear that the provision of a treatment clause does not have the cost implications that were voiced as concerns by cabinet. She recommended that victims of sexual assault be offered as soon as possible a medico-legal examination at a designated health-care facility. Requiring this by law would force the authorities to provide the service, she said. (Source: Wyndham Hartley Business Day, September 17, 2003)

What is the best way to stop sexual abuse of children by adults? What suggestions do children have for tackling this problem? Tearfund investigated sexual behaviour in young people in Sri Lanka and gathered their views on strategies to prevent sexual abuse. The study involved 145 school children aged 13 to 17 years in Moratuwa district. It aimed to discover: prevalence of perceived and actual sexual behaviour among young people children's perceptions and understanding of how to prevent sexual exploitation of children and how to help victims of abuse their knowledge about sex and their experience of sex education. The study found that: The children have creative ideas on intervention to prevent or stop sexual abuse of children, including: encouraging adults to address the root causes of negligence of children and educating them on child protection teaching children about the importance of speaking out offering peer support for abused children improving parent-child relationships providing study and employment to remove children from risky situations informing children about the health risks of sexual activity punishing adult perpetrators. The authors recommend that policy-makers tackling the problems of child sexual abuse should: develop sex education strategies that include a wide range of related topics and leave behind the 'traditional' human biology lesson inform parents and teachers of the importance of their explanation of sex make adults aware of their responsibilities in protection, moral education, and support of children encourage religious leaders to support good parenting train school teachers in appropriate sex education, child protection and counselling of children at risk insist that police see children as victims and take these abuses seriously by punishing the offenders allow children to contribute to finding a solution to these problems. Source(s): Children don't do sex with adults for pleasure: Sri Lankan children's views on sex and sexual exploitation', Child Abuse and Neglect 24 (7): 995-1003, by G. Miles, 2000 Full article:http://www.id21.org/health/h9gm1g1.html

For three days starting on Monday March 11, organisations and individuals working in the filed of child abuse are gathering in Parliament to provide evidence on the sexual abuse of children. The hearings follow last year's high number of child rapes that were reported in the media. Health-e have compiled a number of audio reports relating to issues of child abuse - available from their web site: http://www.health-e.org.za (requires a suitable Media player to listen to the audio) Stories include: Parliament hears evidence on child sexual abuse Seeing the signs of child abuse School reports 30 rapes among pupils

More than 130 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital cutting (FGC), and each year nearly 2 million more girls are at risk. FGC is a traditional practice that involves cutting or altering the female genitalia as a rite of passage or for other sociocultural reasons. While some research indicates that many women who undergo FGC do not have health problems as a result of the procedure, for others, the practice can have serious health consequences.