Hundreds of citizens in Torit converged at Freedom Square on Monday to celebrate 16 days of activism with a call to end rape in the state.
16 days of activism against gender-based violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls running every year from November 25, to 10 December, marking Human Rights Day.
Radio Emmanuel quoted Idwa Dominica Vitale, Director-General in the State Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare saying the days are for sensitization of rape cases and reactions related to gender-based violence.
She called on international partners to support her ministry in taking action to bring back the dignity of women and girls in the state.
‘To raise the awareness among the public on the assurance of rape check the loop holes and barrier that hinder the prevention and response to GBV mobilize resources for the action to address GBV in the state. And advocate for action for all, the most important aspect of this is to send messages through various stakeholders and GBV actors to support for upholding the respect for woman and girls right and social justice in general’, the Director-general stresses.
Fermo Peter Isara, Commissioner of Torit county accused girls who come from nearby villages to work in hotels for unnecessary night groupings which he said an easy way of spreading HIV virus.
According to Peter, these girls will spread the virus to their respective villages after leaving their working places.
‘Some girls come from village to open tea joint and some come from village siting in hotel and working there and wait at night they have their center to meet in groups, ladies from Loming and others from different villages and all these girl they come to town to do what everyone if someone come from village ask her the purpose of coming to town. These girls will carry disease from town to village that will infect people in the village and will lead to easy spread of disease in Torit, he cautioned.
Juliana Momoi Choho, Torit Municipal Mayor said drugs such as opium have taken over the state which she said contribute to major occurrence of rapping and that infection of HIV/AIDs becomes easy due to frequent rapes.
‘What brings cases of raping is opium (drugs) and opium is all over the state our state they bring opium here and spread it across and these opium is very dangerous cause these people to rape. You cannot meet a woman on the roadside and start raping, you find your mother and star to sleep with, led all mothers understand this’, she said.
‘We should not keep quiet about it because today I have witnessed the voice of women and in the rape a lot of things happened maybe the man who raped the woman is affected with AIDS’, the mayor added.
The UNMISS head of field office Torit Caroline Waudo appealed to all partners to stand together with survivors of gender-based violence and bring the perpetrators to justice.
‘Let us all remember the plight for survivors of different forms of gender-based violence, their challenging experiences in all spheres of their lives. I therefore call for collective action particularly holding perpetrators of GBV accountable and continue to provide victims cantered assistance’, she elaborated.
Governor of Torit State Tobiolo Alberio Oromo said cultures in society are the major obstacles to justice and constitution.
He pointed out that some parents and some guardians have withdrawn charges of rape cases from court.
‘Our culture should not interfere with the constitution, why am I say so, there was a person a policeman who raped a young girl below seventeen years in a hotel, he was arrested, taken to court, charged fourteen year imprisonment and the relatives of the girl went to court and said ‘no we are going to hand over this girl to him such that no one will cane this girl again and the court was like that’s your decision decide to release the man so they paid cows to the parents’, he explained.
The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is an annual campaign started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership.
It is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.