Children

For the millions upon millions, many children, who are the survivors of sexual violence, one must not forget their struggles in this month of awareness, as their battle is never ending. Therefore in conjunction with April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I wanted to share these words of survival from Nancy Venable Raine, After Silence, Rape and my Journey Back.

I was not only a survivor, but a witness to my own survival. I saw, too, that however painful my feelings of the past year had been, the pain had not, after all, replaced other feelings, but only hidden them from sight. For traumatic experiences, “forgetting” is impossible, yet remembering is the last thing you want to do. I learned that some redemption can come from even the deepest of losses. The victims of rape must carry their memories with them for the rest of their lives. They must not also carry the burden of silence and shame.

Shame and fear leads many victims, especially children to a life of silence, but we must brake the silence on such brutal crimes. As an international society we must not sit idly back and allow such acts to continue. The world is full of armed conflicts and in these conflicts the use of rape as a weapon of war continues, yet the victims live in fear of persecution, they are ostracized by their own families and communities, and healthcare and support systems are far and few in between. Thus as a global community we must take action to see that victims are allowed to become survivors and that they no longer have to live in shame and silence. So let us listen…let us here! The following passage from Charlotte Pierce-Baker’s, Surviving the Silence, illustrates how braking the silence is a major step in healing the wounds of sexual violence.

Still I weep for what I cannot change. Healing is a continuous process. Rape affects all aspect of one’s life and being and one has to work continuously to become whole and intact. Pieces of myself are coming slowly together. I am different, but I accept that. The way out is to tell: Speak of the acts perpetrated upon us, speak the atrocities, speak the injustices, speak the personal violations of the soul. Someone will listen, someone will believe our stories, someone will join us.

Many eyes and ears have been on Chad as the child trafficking case gets underway. The children, most of which proved to have family, the majority of which contained at least one parent, have been left in limbo. The children who have all been placed in protective custody of the Chadian Social Services, may have to wait months before they are returned to their families. Many of the ‘Kidnap’ children may not get home ever, as it is too difficult to determine their backgrounds.

Legal framework a hindrance in ‘child-trafficking’ case in Sudan and the Congo. Chadian and UN officials say the absence of a child trafficking law in Chad will hamper efforts to prosecute members of the French charity Zoe’s Ark, who were arrested in the country while trying to take 103 children to reported host families in France. The lack of a law may pose many issues in prosecuting this case, the largest being trying the case under a lower offence. The case which is to be tried as an abduction case, will be much harder to prove, than that of human trafficking.

“There are no other penalties in the abduction chapter [of the criminal code] stronger than the one we chose. Our penal code is limited. It doesn’t cover [many] infractions. There is a gap”, said Ahmad Daoud Chari, state prosecutor in Abéché, the eastern Chadian town where the members of the association were arrested.

The failure of the law in this case only highlights the need of so many states and countries to put into place specific laws against human trafficking and slavery. Four Chadian nationals have appeared in court in Ndjamena, charged in connection with the attempted airlift of 103 children to France. The four, officials from the border town of Tine, were charged with “fraud and complicity to kidnap minors.” Six French members of the charity Zoe’s Ark, three Spaniards and a Belgian are in jail awaiting trail. A French lawyer, Gilbert Collard, arrived in Ndjamena Nov. 6 to take charge of the charity workers’ defense (BBC). While release was given to the three French journalists and four Spanish airline stewardesses detained under suspected implication in the illegal evacuation of the 103 children.

The case has had the world watching and debating the question of international adoption, especially from Africa, which many have already been left with speculation of too loose of adoption laws. The case has now promoted many other countries to look at the situation in their own country. The Chad arrests prompt suspension of international child adoption, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “I have taken this decision as a precautionary measure,” Aimé Emmanuel Yoka, the Congolese minister in charge of justice and human rights, said on 1 November. A 2006 study, showed that approximately 2,000 children where victims of cross-border trafficking, conducted by the Congolese government, the justice and peace commission and the UN Children’s Fund.

While the children of this debacle sit in wait, the debate rages on, and we sit in astonishment and anticipation for the outcome of this case. What the outcome will be for the those accused of trafficking is still a long ways off, and one can only hope that this case will bring much needed attention to lack of laws against human trafficking and slavery.

Regardless of ones gender, rape is a violent crime that continues to violate the victim time and time again. Like a scar it never leaves you, and when society turns their backs on victims of rape, and other sexually violent crime, it only deepens. Society is well known for turning its back on victims of sexually based crimes, and boys often fear worse than girls when it comes to seeking acceptance as victims.

15 year old, Alexandre Robert, a French national, was enjoying his summer holiday in Dubai when his life was dramatically changed in a flash one day. Lured by a friend Alexandre was led in to a car to, where he was trapped, threatened with violence and then sodomized by three men. Sadly Alexandre’s horrific nightmare didn’t end there, he was then faced with the threat of prosecution for homosexual activity, which in Dubai can yield , when he tried to report his case to the local authorities.

Civil and Islamic law criminalize homosexual activity in the United Arab Emerates. In addition Alexandre was misinformed as to the HIV status of one of his attackers, and thus not notified for some three weeks. The possibly of being HIV positive, was only to place more legal fear and mental anguish on the teenage boy. Under UAE law, a foreigner with H.I.V., or those convicted of homosexual activity, are to be deported. The boy and his family have now fled the country in fear of his arrest, however the are not giving up and continue to stand up for Alexandre and other boys in the same situation.

The law in the UAE fails to legally recognize the rape of male victims, leaving victims with few options for prosecution. However in this case fear has not stood in the way of the victim, and he has stood strong for prosecution. All the men involved in the case have plead not guilty to “forced homosexuality”, despite DNA evidence.

The case has sparked not only concern and outrage, but left many to question how a country with such wealth and international power, can still be so in the dark. Alexandre, said about the country;

“Dubai, they say we build the highest towers, they have the best hotels. But all the news, they hide it. They don’t want the world to know that Dubai still lives in the Middle Ages.”
(In Rape Case, a French Youth Takes On Dubai)

Only can only hope that cases such as Alexandre’s spark international and domestic outrage in the UAE and internationally, and work to protect the rights of victims, regardless of their sex. Rape is rape, and no victim should fear legal prosecution for a crime which was so violently inflicted upon them. The pain and mental anguish that the act of rape leaves on a victim is pain enough, and to be revictimized by an archaic legal system is more than one should ever endure.