NGO: youth rape cases on rise

[geovalin]

The number of rape cases involving young girls aged between 12 and 17 has increased compared with previous years, according to rights group Licadho. The group sounded the alarm yesterday after compiling all of the complaints it received last year, finding that rape cases were on the rise and the abuse of young girls was still prevalent throughout the country.
 

Nap Somaly, Licadho’s senior women’s and children’s rights monitor, said yesterday that throughout the last 10 months of 2016, the group received 221 complaints concerning the rape of women and children from 14 provinces, with 174 of the cases, or 79 percent, involving girls under the age of 18. In 2015, they only had 170 complaints in total. From 2012 to 2014, Licadho says there were 762 reported rape cases – 537 of them involving victims under 18.
 

“It shows that the rape of girls is still increasing and what we are concerned about is the children who are even younger than one year old who were raped by neighbors or by relatives. What we noticed is that even when the rapes occur, many do not report it,” she said. The factors exacerbating the trend have not been addressed at all she said, pointing to complaints where the parents of victims said they live in remote areas and do not have enough time to care for their children, especially children between the ages of 12 and 15.

 

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