Somaliland vil straffe hårdere og begrænse brugen af traditionelle domstole for at knække stigning i antallet af voldtægter. Det anslås, at der blev begået 5.000 voldtægter i landet i 2012. Til sammenligning blev der anmeldt 429 voldtægter i Danmark i 2010.
HARGEISA, 28 May 2013 (IRIN): Stiffer penalties and reduced reliance on traditional justice systems could help end the rising incidence of rape in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, say officials.
“We estimate that about 5,000 rape cases may have taken place in Somaliland in 2012, compared to 4,000 cases in 2011,” Abdi Abdillahi Hassan, the director of social affairs in Somaliland’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, told IRIN.
“There is no data of gender-based violence rates in Somaliland,” he added.
Records at the Sexual Assaults Referral Centre (SARC), also known as Baahi-Koob, of the Hargeisa Group Hospital in Somaliland’s capital, also indicate a rising trend.
“The centre received 195 rape cases in 2012, compared to 130 cases in 2011,” Ahmed Dahir Aden, SARC’s director, told IRIN. The reported cases are mainly from areas near (havnebyen) Hargeisa.
Few rape victims seek medical care; those who do arrive well after the attack. “Many women do not reach Baahi-Koob centre in the first 24 hours of the rape incident, and consequently the evidence of the rape cannot be easily found by the medical team,” Aden said.
Inadequate settlements
The extent of rape in Somaliland remains difficult to measure, with most cases going unreported or being resolved between families.
While rape is punishable with a jail term of five to 15 years in Somaliland, cases are often settled outside the courts by traditional leaders, with perpetrators (gerningsmændene) typically paying compensation or marrying the victim.
For example, the perpetrator’s family can give some amount to the victim’s family, explained Faiza Yusuf Ahmed, the chairperson of the Somaliland Youth Development Association (SOYDA). “In addition to that, sometimes the case may proceed before the court and the perpetrator may be sentenced to imprisonment.
However, the perpetrator may also pay an amount relative to his prison term [a fine] (erstatning), and he will be released. For this reason, if we want to decrease rape, we need to stop both the traditional ways of solving rape cases and the buying [off of] the term of imprisonment,” she said.
The acting Somaliland attorney general, Aden Ahmed Mouse, concurred (samtykkede):
“One of the problems that we are now facing is the traditional way of solving [rape cases]. For example, the families of the victim and the perpetrator may agree before a public notary and demand that the court release the perpetrator. And the public prosecutor can do nothing because the victim is here and she is telling the court that she has stopped the case against the perpetrator.”
Explaining the payment of fines by perpetrators, Mouse said:
“Sometimes, the perpetrators are sentenced to a term less than the term in the penal code, after the judge considers how the rape case took place and the circumstances. For example, a perpetrator may be sentenced to five years. He may stay in prison for two-and-a-half years and later he may apply to buy the remaining [time]…
The fine equivalent for one year in prison [for a rape charge] is 2,740,500 Somaliland shillings (about 421 US dollar]. But we are now thinking of stopping this,” he said.
Call for stiffer penalties
Læs hele artiklen: http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98116/Stiffer-penalties-formal-justice-to-curb-rape-in-Somaliland
