Donald Trump (left) is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl at the home of fellow billionaire Jeffery Epstein (who is currently a registered sex offender). Epstein was known for throwing sex parties with under-aged girls for his wealthy friends and has faced numerous lawsuits alleging rape of young girls. Trump now claims he had "no relationship" with Epstein, but once said that he knew Epstein for 15 years: "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
By Emily Shugerman
The plaintiff alleges that, throughout the summer of 1994, she was imprisoned and raped at parties hosted by finance billionaire Jeffery Epstein.
Doe's attorney, Thomas Meagher, told Revelist that Doe left home at age 13 to attempt a modeling career in New York City. While struggling to get started in the industry, one of Epstein's associates—who has now submitted an affidavit in Doe's case against him—spotted her. The associate told Doe that she could be paid to attend parties hosted by Epstein, and that they would help to advance her career. She attended several such parties that summer.
Doe claims she encountered Trump at four of these parties, where he "initiated sexual contact" each time. In the fourth and final encounter, she alleges Trump tied her to the bed, exposed himself, and raped her.
"During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect," the suit alleges. "Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff's pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted."
After the encounter, the plaintiff alleges that Trump threatened to kill her family if she told anyone about it. Doe remained silent for 12 years, before this year's campaign made facing her past with Trump "unavoidable."
[...]
Jeffrey Epstein—the man accused of imprisoning Doe—also happens to be a registered sex offender, who has already been accused of keeping women as "sex slaves" for himself and his wealthy friends. Such influential friends include Bill Clinton, Stephen Hawking—and yes, Donald Trump.
Like most high-profile scumbags, Epstein kept a "little black book" of his clients and friends. Though Trump’s attorney claimed he had "no relationship” with Epstein, his notebook, obtained by the FBI, lists 14 contact numbers for the Republican candidate.Epstein even admitted to "socializing" with Trump while on trial in 2010. But he curiously plead the fifth when asked if he had ever socialized with the businessman around minor-aged girls.
Grief over 10-year-old Wasil Ahmad’s death has prompted outrage that US
military is allowing child soldiers
to fight in Afghan Local Police, to
which the US gives millions of dollars.
Photograph: Twitter
US military attacked for complicity in Afghan child soldiers after boy's murder
By Spencer Ackerman and Sune Engel Rasmussen
The Taliban’s murder of a 10-year old Afghan boy this week has cast a spotlight on the practice by US allies of turning children into fighters in the war-torn country.
Afghans have hailed the heroism of Wasil Ahmad, whom the Taliban killed in Uruzgan province on Monday for fighting alongside his uncle with a US-backed government militia called the Afghan Local Police.
Wasil had won acclaim for helping ALP forces break an insurgent siege after his uncle, the unit’s commander, was wounded. He was declare a national hero by the Afghan government, and paraded, wearing an oversized uniform and wielding an AK-47.
Overshadowed in the outpouring of grief is the grim practice of allowing children to take up arms, particularly alongside a quasi-official force created by the US military.
“There’s nothing heroic about putting a child in danger by arming him and having him fight in a war. The Taliban killed 10-year-old Wasil Ahmad, but those who encouraged him to fight bear responsibility as well,” said Patricia Gossman, the senior Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Afghan officials said that Wasil Ahmad was not formally part of the Afghan Local Police, but his uncle Samad, whose forces the young man fought alongside, was. Child soldiering is supposed to be illegal in Afghanistan, but a September report from Child Soldiers International said that recruitment of child soldiers by Afghan security forces, including the Afghan Local Police, is “ongoing”, though at a recently reduced rate.
Aftermath of a bombing by a female suicide bomber. The bomb was detonated on June 23, 2015 at a bus station near a fish market, in Maiduguri, Nigeria. At least 20 people died in the explosion. (Screen capture from YouTube video)
By Caleb Weiss
The Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), which is formerly known as Boko Haram, has exploited more than 100 women and girls as suicide bombers since June 2014, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The majority of these suicide bombings have occurred in Nigeria, however, the violence has spread to other countries.
Just a few days before the Jan. 31 attack, the jihadist group killed 9 when five women detonated themselves in the town of Chibok. Chibok came into international attention in 2014 when ISWA kidnapped over 300 schoolgirls from the town, of which, many are still missing.
Two days before the attack in Chibok, four ISWA female suicide bombers killed at least 35 people in a market in Cameroon’s Far North Region. The assault led the Cameroonian government to close down the region’s markets in an effort to cut down on allowing ISWA to target civilians. However, it is unclear how effective this measure will be as ISWA is known to also target mosques, churches, bus stops, and various other places that civilians gather.
Despite a coordinated military offensive by Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon – which has targeted ISWA strongholds in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region – the jihadist group has maintained the ability to launch coordinated attacks and assaults throughout the region. Many of these include the use of women and/or girls as suicide bombers.
According to data compiled by The Long War Journal, ISWA has utilized at least 101 women and girls as suicide bombers in Nigeria, Cameroon, and in Chad since June 2014.
The majority of the suicide attacks involving women have occurred in Nigeria. At least 11 have occurred in neighboring Cameroon, though, and three or more took place in southern Chad in the Lake Chad region.
Gynnya McMillen is dead because "she refused to remove her hoodie for a pat down search and photograph."
Gynnya McMillen via Justice for Gynnya McMillen Facebook Page
By Tom Boggioni
A staffer working at a Kentucky juvenile detention center used a martial arts hold on 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen hours before she was found dead in her cell, reports CBS.
According to a spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, the teen refused to remove her sweatshirt for a pat down search and to have her booking photo taken, leading a staffer to use an “Aikido restraint” on her in order to get her to comply.
HEAR THE AUDIO: Kentucky Jail Staffers Waited 11 Minutes to Begin CPR After Teen Who Was Restrained With Martial Arts Move Found Dead
“The staff performed an Aikido restraint hold to safely conduct a pat-down search and remove the youth’s hoodie,” spokesperson Stacy Floden stated. “The purpose of having multiple staff involved in a controlled restraint is to ensure the safety of the youth and staff.”
McMillen was found dead in her cell at the Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center on Jan. 11, after officials failed to check on her well-being throughout the night.
According to center policy, juvenile detainees in isolation cells must be checked on every 15 minutes by staffers.
On Thursday, Reginald Windham, a 10-year veteran of the juvenile justice department, was placed on administrative leave for failing to check on the teen.
According to the Kentucky Center for Investigative reporting, McMillen’s cold lifeless body was discovered “in a sleeping position” in a “secure” room at 9:55 a.m., after failing to respond to twice earlier when asked if she wanted to eat.
Despite her lack of communication, staffers never entered her cell to check on her.
According to the Hardin County coroner there were no obvious signs of trauma or a drug overdose, and that a toxicology report is still pending and could take two more weeks.
Juvenile justice expert Michele Deitch criticized the use of martial arts on the teen.
“I’ve never heard that phrase used in the context of a corrections setting,” Deitch said, adding refusal to remove a sweatshirt is not acceptable grounds for restraint.
Girls as young as 9 are sentenced to death according to an Amnesty International report
Shaqayeq, 15, has been in prison for almost a year on the charge of armed robbery from a chain store in Tehran. Her death sentence has been issued and she must reach 18 so the
verdict can be carried out. Her grandmother came to visit her after a
year. (Photo Sadegh Souri see more photographs Here)
By Amnesty International
Scores of youths in Iran are languishing on death row for crimes committed under the age of 18, said Amnesty International in a new report published today. The report debunks recent attempts by Iran’s authorities to whitewash their continuing violations of children’s rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world’s last executioners of juvenile offenders.
Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran reveals that Iran has continued to consign juvenile offenders to the gallows, while trumpeting as major advances, piecemeal reforms that fail to abolish the death penalty against juvenile offenders.
“This report sheds light on Iran’s shameful disregard for the rights of children. Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the crime,” said Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program.
“Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death.”
In recent years the Iranian authorities have celebrated changes to the country’s 2013 Islamic Penal Code that allow judges to replace the death penalty with an alternative punishment based on a discretionary assessment of juvenile offenders’ mental growth and maturity at the time of the crime. However, these measures are far from a cause for celebration. In fact, they lay bare Iran’s ongoing failure to respect a pledge that it undertook over two decades ago, when it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to abolish the use of death penalty against juvenile offenders completely.
Growing Up On Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran
NFL football player Adrian Peterson was arrested and suspended from the league for using a switch to discipline his son. But you can bet Ted Cruz will be mostly celebrated for spanking his daughters.
By Philip Bump
During a rally in Iowa on Friday evening, Ted Cruz made a joke that went over fine with his audience -- but was less popular once the wider world caught wind.
Replying to a woman who asked him about holding someone accountable for the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in 2012, Cruz said that she was "exactly right." He criticized President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for "engag[ing] in deception" on the matter. Then he zeroed in on Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee for the presidency.
"We do know Hillary told her daughter Chelsea, 'Well, gosh, I knew it was a terrorist attack, while we were out telling the American people it wasn't,'" Cruz said. "You know I'll tell you, in my house, if my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking."
He added: "Well, in America, the voters have a way of administering a spanking."
While it's never hard to find outraged people on social media, there was certainly an element of the response to Cruz's comments that struck a nerve. Former George W. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd, now a commentator for ABC, stated that Cruz was not "a real man" for using corporal punishment on his daughter. Others expressed similar surprise.
A man believed to be Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi. (Handout)
By Tim Teeman
ISIS murdered a 15-year-old accused of being gay but spared the life of his ‘rapist,’ a senior jihadi commander. What lies behind the brutal double standard?
The murder of a 15-year-old teenager, thrown to his death by ISIS for being gay, not only reveals—yet again—the terror group’s murderous homophobia, but also the hypocrisy that exists alongside it.
A senior commander of the so-called Islamic State, named in reports as Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi, was having some kind of relationship with this as-yet-nameless 15-year-old, but the more senior man was not killed.
Instead, al-Jazrawi was reportedly flogged, and forced to leave Syria and join the fighting fronts in northwestern Iraq.
The boy, killed in Deir ez-Zor, Syria’s seventh-largest city, is not the first to be murdered in such a manner: the images of men, accused and suspected of being gay, being thrown to their deaths from tall buildings has become brutally familiar.
Of the 15-year-old’s killing, “The horrific execution took place in front of a large crowd,” a local media activist and an eyewitness told Syrian news agency ARA News.
“The boy was accused of being engaged in a homosexual relation with the prominent ISIS officer Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi,” media activist Sarai al-Din told the agency.
The Sharia Court in Deir ez-Zor reportedly said that Abu Zaid should, like the boy, die for being gay, but ISIS commanders demanded he be sent to fight in Iraq instead.
Subhi Nahas, a gay Syrian who escaped the country fearing for his life, and who in a history-making speech addressed the United Nations last year about LGBT persecution in Syria, told The Daily Beast that there were possible cultural reasons behind the murder of one young man and the reprieve of his older sexual partner, described as the teen’s “rapist” in some reports.
“A tradition in which adult males engaged in sexual pleasure with pre-pubescent boys--ghelman--including hermaphroditic boys, has existed before the creation of Islam," Nahas said. "Because these encounters didn't result in pregnancies, they became more commonplace after Islam had taken root."
The descriptions of the 15-year-old’s relationship with the commander are contradictory: It has been variously described as a “sexual relation” and “rape.” How consensual or coercive the relationship was is unclear, as is the nature of the relationship between the older and younger man.
“Culturally, post the formation of Islam, people related homosexuality to pedophilia,” said Nahas, now an activist with the Organization For Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM). “No distinction is drawn between the two. If somebody raped a boy they called him a homosexual, not a pedophile. Maybe this commander had a kind of waiver given to him by his peers. They think, ‘He does great things for people. We cannot kill him, but we need a scapegoat, the boy.’
By Max Chantha
Recent years have seen a rise in publicity for police unions and their leaders, most famous for their unquestioning defense of criminal officers and leadership that spouts vitriolic rhetoric.
Stephanie Lopez, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association (APOA), proved this stereotype to be true, and herself as both a bully and a criminal, after being arrested for beating her underage daughter.
Lopez was charged with child abuse and booked on a $5,000 bond after causing great bodily harm to her daughter.
The daughter was struck repeatedly in the head, had her hair pulled, and was thrown to the ground by Lopez.
After reporting it to her school resource officers, the daughter and school administrators went to law enforcement – a somewhat brave act, considering her mother’s relationship with the police department.
As such, the Bernalillo County Sherriff’s Department, instead of the Albuquerque Police Department, undertook the investigation and subsequent arrest.
Lopez mirrored the tone of police unions, infamous for rejecting the responsibility of officers in countless misuse of force cases, when she said that it was in fact her daughter’s fault that she had been beaten.
Lopez stated that her daughter failed to inform her of a utility bill, and thus brought the beating on herself.
While this abhorrent behavior should result in her termination as president of the APOA, it remains unlikely.
Lopez, unsurprisingly, has faced accusations of various criminal behavior, including bribery and witness intimidation, and retaliation against those who seek to bring her officers to justice.
An Israeli soldier is recorded throwing a knife on the ground, forcing a Palestinian girl to pick it up, and then arresting
her. Numerous Palestinian have been killed in recent weeks "for attacking Israeli soldiers and police with knives" - How
many of those knives were planted? (Screencaptured from video)
By Ali Abunimah
A video has emerged apparently showing an Israeli soldier dropping a knife on the ground and forcing a terrified Palestinian girl to pick it up before she is arrested.
The video was circulated widely in Palestinian media and on social networks on Tuesday, the same day that two more Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces, who claimed that the youths had attempted to carry out stabbings.
Israel further escalated violence on Wednesday by carrying out a revenge demolition of a Palestinian home in Jerusalem.
Forced to pick up knife
The Palestinian news outlet Donia Al-Watan said the video was recorded by a Palestinian who witnessed the incident at an Israeli military checkpoint south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
Several outlets identified the girl in the video as 14-year-old Sabreen Mujahid Sanad.
The 3-minute video appears to have been filmed from a vehicle stopped at the checkpoint. At the beginning, a man in civilian clothes can be seen speaking to the girl next to a white truck. Israeli soldiers are standing nearby and giving orders to others.
The girl is not restrained by the soldiers and walks toward the cab of the white truck. At 1:30, one of the soldiers throws what appears to be a knife onto the ground.
The girl, with her arms raised near her chest, trembles. The soldier then appears to order her to bend down and pick up the knife.
She kneels down and picks it up, and then appears to talk to the soldier as she holds it. As she kneels, a second soldier aims his weapon at her.
A third soldier then approaches and leads her away with her hands behind her back.
As with other similar incidents, the video has fueled widespread suspicions that many of the alleged stabbing attempts in which Palestinians were killed involved the planting of evidence.
By Human Rights Watch Child marriage in Africa often ends a girl’s education, exposes her to domestic violence and grave health risks from early childbearing and HIV, and traps her in poverty, Human Rights Watch said today. Zimbabwe’s government should lead by example at the African Union Girls’ Summit on Ending Child Marriage and pledge to set and enforce 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage.
The summit, in Lusaka, Zambia, on November 26 and 27, 2015, will highlight the devastating effects of child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, where 40 percent of girls marry before 18, and seek to secure commitments from governments to end the practice. Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, is currently the African Union chairperson.
“The Zimbabwean government should show that it is serious about tackling the scourge of child marriage and raise the minimum age to 18,” said Dewa Mavhinga, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The future of millions of African girls depends on African leaders taking action to end a devastating practice that robs girls of education and exposes them to abuse.”
In a 2014 survey by Zimbabwe’s National Statistics Agency, one in three women ages 20 to 49 surveyed reported that they married before age 18; an estimated 4 percent marry before age 15, the survey found. Since most child marriages are unregistered customary law unions, the survey is the best indicator of the scale of the problem in Zimbabwe.
Between October 13 and November 10, Human Rights Watch interviewed 35 women and girls who were child brides in six provinces – Matabeleland South, Masvingo, Midlands, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, and Harare – as well as two dozen government officials, lawyers, experts, and religious and traditional leaders.
Zimbabwe has conflicting legal provisions on the minimum age for marriage. Zimbabwe’s constitution does not expressly prohibit child marriage, and a number of laws effectively condone it. The gaps in the law, extreme poverty, poor access to education, and harmful religious beliefs and social norms fuel child marriage in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch found.
Child marriage is common in indigenous apostolic churches, charismatic evangelical groupings which mix Christian beliefs with traditional cultures and have approximately 1.2 million followers across the country. The Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe acknowledge that the practice was more prevalent among apostolic followers than other religious groups. A midwife who is a member of the Johwane Masowe Shonhiwa apostolic church told Human Rights Watch that church doctrine requires girls to marry between ages 12 and 16 to prevent sexual relations outside marriage. “As soon as a girl reaches puberty, any man in the church can claim her for his wife,” she said.
Archbishop Johannes Ndanga, president of the Apostolic Churches Council of Zimbabwe, a coalition of over 1,000 indigenous apostolic churches, told Human Rights Watch that “virginity testing” – which includes the insertion of fingers into the vagina – of girls as young as 12, was widely practiced in the apostolic churches. “If found to be virgins they would get marks on their foreheads,” he said. “Older men in the church will then choose these ‘fresh girls’ to become their wives, often joining polygamous unions. If a man marries a woman who is not a virgin, she is required to find a virgin girl for her husband to marry as compensation.” The World Health Organization has determined that virginity testing is a discredited and abusive practice with no scientific basis.
Human Rights Watch also documented discriminatory social norms that link a girl’s perceived sexual “purity” to her family’s honor. If a girl becomes pregnant, spends the night outside the family home, is seen with a boyfriend, or returns home late after seeing a boyfriend, her family may force her to marry for the sake of honor. In some cases girls who become pregnant or are sexually active decide to enter a customary marriage because they fear being rejected, beaten, or abused by relatives.
In most cases of child marriage Human Rights Watch documented, girls had no sex education before they became pregnant or married. The Health and Child Welfare Ministry found in a 2010 survey that young people, especially those ages 10 to 14, lacked basic knowledge of reproductive health. The government’s national school curriculum does not include a comprehensive sex education program. Many Zimbabweans fear that providing young people with contraception contributes to promiscuity. Many indigenous apostolic churches actively discourage use of contraception.
The negative health consequences of adolescents’ limited access to reproductive health information and services can be life-threatening. Early childbearing contributes to maternal mortality, and is a leading cause of death among girls ages 15 to 19 globally. Although the overall HIV infection rate has dropped in Zimbabwe, it remains high, at 15 percent, and Zimbabwe has the sixth-highest number of annual adolescent AIDS-related deaths in the world. According to UNAIDS, HIV prevalence is almost twice as high among women and girls ages 15 to 24 as among men and boys of the same age.
“Zimbabwe’s government and religious leaders should recognize that comprehensive sex education and access to contraception are essential to preventing child marriage and protecting girls from HIV transmission and early childbearing,” Mavhinga said. “Early childbearing can lead to death or serious injury, including obstetric fistula.”
Some child brides Human Rights Watch interviewed had experienced violence such as beatings or verbal abuse from their in-laws or other relatives. Nearly all the child brides said their husbands had abandoned them, leaving them to care for children without financial support. Many described mental distress and suicidal feelings as a result of their situation.
Education can help protect against child marriage, but many girls said they dropped out of school because their families could not afford school costs. Nearly all the child brides Human Rights Watch interviewed were not able to continue their education after marriage, either because of their financial situation, their husband would not permit it, or they had to care for a baby. Many indigenous apostolic churches forbid girls to continue education after marriage. One church elder in the Johwane Marange apostolic church in Masvingo said: “Formal education is not important because the church will teach her the necessary skills to work with her hands and provide for her family. Skills like weaving baskets and mats to sell.”
In October 2014, two former child brides asked the Constitutional Court to have child marriage be made a criminal offense and declared unconstitutional. They asked the court to declare 18 the minimum age for marriage and to have all marriage laws amended. The government opposed the claim on the grounds that the applicants had not been forced into child marriage, but had “simply opted to live in unregistered unions when they were minors”; and since the Marriages Act permits girls to marry at 16 and boys at 18, “the differentiation arises from biological and psychological maturity levels for boys and girls.”
In July, Zimbabwe became the eighth country to join the African Union campaign to end child marriage in Africa. In her keynote address, Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, called on the Justice Ministry to revise Zimbabwe’s laws to set the minimum marriage age at 18, but her recommendation has not been carried out.
The government has yet to finalize and implement a national action plan on ending child marriage, as the African Union has requested. The action plan should set out the government’s strategies, in partnership with key stakeholders – donors, community leaders, adolescents, and nongovernmental groups – to address child marriage in Zimbabwe.
“President Mugabe and his government should not ignore the suffering of hundreds of thousands of girls in Zimbabwe who are robbed of their futures through early marriage,” Mavhinga said. “The government should drop its objection to the constitutional challenge, reform its laws, and ensure that the minimum age of 18 for marriage is applied across the country, including by religious denominations.”
For further details, recommendations, and accounts by child brides, please see below.
Child Marriage in Zimbabwe
Africa has 15 of the 20 countries in the world with the highest rates of child marriage. According to UNICEF, if the current trend continues, the number of child brides in Africa is expected to double by 2050.
Zimbabwe’s National Statistics Agency in 2014 published the results of a survey called the Zimbabwe Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, which found that 32.9 percent of women between 20 and 49 married before age 18. There has been no comprehensive national study, either by the Zimbabwean government or independent organizations, of the number of girls who drop out of school due to child marriage or of the other harmful effects they suffer.
The government has not produced an action plan to create and strengthen community-based child protection mechanisms with a particular focus on child marriage, including shelter facilities or other mechanism to support girls turned away by their husbands or their families. Local organizations such as the Musasa Project – a nongovernmental group working to protect girls’ and women’s rights – provide shelter for abused girls, but their facilities are not available countrywide.
According to Real Open Opportunities for Transformation Support (ROOTS), a nongovernmental organization campaigning to end child marriage in Zimbabwe, child marriage is most prevalent in poor traditional farming communities and in areas where illegal gold panning is the main source of income. Illegal gold panners have easy access to cash when they sell gold which enables them to lure vulnerable girls living in poverty.
Gaps in Zimbabwe’s child protection system result in lack of protection for victims of child marriage and significant obstacles to girls seeking redress. For example, girls have limited information about their rights, often do not have the money to travel to where they can seek protection from the authorities, and when they do, the authorities often dismiss their concerns as “a family matter.”
Contradictory Laws
Zimbabwe has conflicting legal provisions on the minimum age for marriage. Zimbabwe’s constitution does not expressly prohibit child marriage, and a number of laws effectively condone it.
Section 78 of the constitution says that anyone who has attained the age of 18 has the right to found a family and that no one should be compelled to marry against their will. The government has said, however, that section 78 does not set 18 as the minimum age for marriage, but simply confers a right on those above 18 to found a family.
Zimbabwe’s Customary Marriages Act sets no minimum age for marriage, while the Marriage Act, which governs monogamous marriages, states that girls under 16 cannot marry without the written consent of the justice minister.
The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act makes it a criminal offense for anyone to promise a girl under 18 in marriage or to force a girl or woman to enter into a marriage against her will. It also makes it a criminal offense to use cultural or customary rites or practices to force a woman to marry. It provides that any adult man who has sexual relations with a willing child between ages 12 and 15 is guilty of statutory rape because children in this age group are considered too immature to make informed decisions about their sexual behavior, so the child’s consent is no defense. However, the law says that if the person is married to a child under 16, having sexual relations with the spouse is not statutory rape.
Zimbabwe has ratified international conventions that oblige it to protect children against child sexual exploitation and abuse, including child marriage. These include the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. But unless the government revises domestic laws to incorporate the requirements under these treaties, Zimbabwe’s courts have little power to enforce these international legal obligations.
Key Recommendations to the Government of Zimbabwe
To the President
Publicly support law reform to make 18 the minimum marriage age.
Finalize, in consultation with nongovernmental groups and affected communities, a comprehensive national action plan to end child marriage.
To the Ministries of Justice and of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development
Take necessary legislative steps to harmonize marriage laws to make 18 the minimum marriage age, and ensure that the laws require free and full consent of both spouses, requirements for proof of age before marriage licenses are issued, and imposes penalties on anyone who intimidates, threatens, or harms anyone who refuses to marry.
Provide regular training for police and prosecutors on their legal responsibilities to investigate and prosecute violence against women, including child marriage.
Withdraw opposition to the lawsuit by victims of child marriage before the constitutional court seeking the criminalization of child marriage and a ruling to set 18 as the minimum marriage age.
Facilitate the provision of shelters, legal services, and other support mechanisms to protect girls from child marriage and to support those currently in child marriage and those turned away by their families.
Initiate local and national awareness campaigns that provide information to parents, guardians, religious leaders, and community leaders about the harmful effects of child marriage, emphasizing the health risks of early pregnancy and HIV transmission and the benefits of girls’ education.
Adapt and adopt best practices from other countries to empower girls, for example by providing girls with safe spaces, economic incentives and support to families in need, information about the harm of child marriage and about sexual and reproductive health, and life skills training.
Support and strengthen initiatives by local groups and the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe to combat child marriage.
Education Ministry
Develop retention strategies to help prevent child marriage and to keep married girls in school, such as providing incentives for families to keep girls in school, scholarships, expanded school feeding programs, adequate sanitation facilities, and life skills programs for married girls through targeted outreach and support programs, and evening or part-time formal schooling and vocational training opportunities.
Empower girls and boys with information and knowledge about their reproductive and sexual rights by introducing a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.
Health Ministry
Ensure access to reproductive health information and services for adolescents.
Selected Accounts
Confidence S., 22:
I was 14 years-old when I got married to a 42-year-old man who had a wife already. My aunt who was looking after me said I should get married to the man because he was rich and would look after me. But he was very abusive; he did not allow me to leave the house to visit friends or go to the shops. He always suspected me of having younger boyfriends. I was in form 2 [in secondary school] and pregnant when he married me. I stopped going to school. At that time girls who fell pregnant were expelled from school.
After me he married two more wives. His other wives did not want me – they chased me away but when I tried to go back to my family my aunt and mother also turned me away saying they had already accepted lobola (bride price) from him. When I went back to him, his other wives would fight me. He used to beat me and shout at me. He refused to let me continue with school. After two years of marriage, life was so difficult for me that I tried to kill myself by drinking rat poison. I was in hospital for one week after which my family finally took me back. Child marriage ruined my life. Now I do not work and cannot find a job because I stopped going to school.
Abigail C., 15:
I fell pregnant last year when I was 14-years-old. I had stopped going to school that same year because my mother, who works as a maid earning US$50 per month, could not afford to send me to school. I had an affair with an older man who had a wife. The woman who lives next door is the one who persuaded me to have an affair with this man. I received no sex education at all, and when I had sex with this man I fell pregnant. I went to live with his mother because he was staying with his first wife. In June I went to hospital and gave birth to a baby, who died within a few minutes of birth. The nurses told me my baby died. After that I went back to live with my mother. I wish to go back to school because I am still a child.
Rutendo C., 16:
I stopped going to school last year when in grade 7 because my parents did not have money to send me to school. One day after I had stopped going to school my grandfather saw me in the fields having sex with my boyfriend, who was 25-years-old. He went and told my parents to send me away to get married to my boyfriend. My parents did not want to send me away but he forced them saying, “You cannot keep a child who has been defiled; she has had sex and she must go.” So I went and lived with him as his wife, we are still together and I am 8-months pregnant now.
Justine T., 38:
When I was 16 I met a young man who I talked to about my problems. He was very understanding. We had sex. I didn't know that I would get pregnant. But that's what happened. That's the reason why I stopped going to school. When you are pregnant, you are not allowed to continue with school [a policy that was later revised to allow pregnant girls to continue with school]. At home, they also don't want you there. They told me to go to and live with the person who made me pregnant.
At that time I didn't know anything about sex. Nobody gave me any sex education. If I knew about it I wouldn't have fallen pregnant…It was 1998. I was pregnant. My husband came home drunk and started shouting at me. I was angry and I shouted back at him, then he beat me up. I was very hurt and became angry. That's what caused me to do what I did. I poured paraffin all over my body and set myself on fire. Then I woke up in hospital. I am trapped in this situation. I am failing to find work to support myself and my family. My children have stopped going to school because we cannot afford to send them to school.
Agnes N., 19:
I got married when I was 16. One day I was late coming from school and my grandmother who looked after me saw me standing with my boyfriend when it was nearly getting dark, about 6 p.m. Later when I got home she told me to go back to my boyfriend and I did. I stopped going to school, but my husband who was at the same school continued and failed his exams. He stayed with his sister who was abusive to me, she wanted me to go back to my family; she blamed me for his failure in school.
Later I fell pregnant and his uncle tried to force me to abort but I refused. My husband neglected me. Sometimes I went without food, and tried to go back to my family but my grandmother would not take me back. Eventually she took me back; I gave birth at my grandmother’s house. Life is difficult for me because am not working and the father of my child has never supported his son.
Rosemary M., 19:
I was 15 when I got married. I was pregnant at the time. I had already stopped school in grade 4 when both my parents died. My husband would beat me and he had many girlfriends and did not look after me. When I gave birth my baby died after four days. I got pregnant again but the baby died after four months. His mother chased me away saying she wanted grandchildren but my babies were dying. Whenever my husband beat me she would say, “Beat her some more! When she feels the pain she will leave.”
My brothers refused to take me back saying marriage was my choice so I must live with it. At that point I thought of drowning myself to end my suffering, but I then decided against it. He got another wife saying he did not want a childless wife. Later I gave birth to a baby girl who is now 7-months-old but he does not support me and his child. My sister looks after me and my child.
Munesu C., 16:
I am 16, I ran away from home to get married when I was 14 after I had sex with my boyfriend, who was 21. I was afraid my family would discover that I had had sex so I went to live with my boyfriend as his wife. I was in grade 7 at the time and stopped going to school. After about 7 months my husband and his three brothers began to complain that I was not getting pregnant. He never beat me but always complained that I was barren. I used to do a lot of hard work washing clothes, cleaning and cooking for my husband and his relatives. After two years of marriage he sent me away saying I am barren, and my mother took me back. My wish is to go back to school but my mother cannot afford to send me back to school.
Chamwa M., midwife in the Johwane Masowe Shonhiwa Apostolic faith church:
Our church doctrine is that girls must marry when they are between 12 and 16-years-old to make sure they do not sin by having sexual relations outside marriage. As soon as a girl reaches puberty, any man in the church can claim her for a wife. A man is allowed to have as many wives as he can manage, and as many children as he wants. All pregnant mothers give birth at home; going to hospital or using modern medicine is prohibited. Use of contraceptives or other family planning methods is also prohibited – only God can plan families and God’s commandment was “Be fruitful and multiply.”
We have prophets in our church who will know if anyone in the church disobeys the rules and goes to hospital to seek medication or uses contraceptives like pills or condoms. When a man says God has shown him in a dream that he should marry a certain girl, that girl cannot say no to the word of God. If she says no, God’s curse will be upon her life; she may fail to find a husband for the rest of her life, or she could be barren for the rest of her life.
Archbishop Johannes Ndanga, president of the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ), a coalition of over 1,000 apostolic churches in the country. The coalition is campaigning to end child marriage. He said:
We are trying to change, and stop child marriage in our churches, but we face a lot of resistance from some churches who hold on to many beliefs that justify exploitation of girls. For example, virginity testing and polygamy is widely practiced in our Apostolic faith churches – I too, before I got to know about human rights, I used to enforce virginity testing in the church that I lead. Girls as young as 12 years would be checked for virginity by church elders, and if found to be virgins they would get marks on their foreheads to show they are virgins. Older men in the church would then choose these “fresh girls” to become their wives, often joining polygamous unions. If a man marries a woman who is not a virgin, she is required to find a virgin girl for her husband to marry as compensation.
We are facing strong and sometimes violent resistance from some of our member churches who continue with harmful practices of child marriage and abuse. In May 2014, after we received reports of abuse of young girls at the church, we asked the police to help us shut down a member church… The church members resisted and used sticks to beat up nine police officers, journalists, and ACCZ officials.
Joshua M., elder in the Zion Apostolic Church:
We continue to allow a man to marry many wives in our church but now support the ACCZ campaign to end child marriage. The problem is that girls and women are not allowed to speak in church, and cannot question church doctrine, and this perpetuates their abuse and lack of rights. If a man stands up in church and says God showed him in a dream that he should marry a certain girl, then that is God’s commandment which must be obeyed. Girls become afraid to disobey God. Our church has pledged to stop child marriage in our church.
Chief Chiveso, traditional leader from Mashonaland Central Province:
Traditional leaders in Mashonaland Central province have come together to campaign to end child marriage. In cases where young girls who are, say, 14 or 15-years-old, and get married in our communities, we summon the man to the traditional court and also refer the case to the police. We do not know how the police deal with such cases, but at the traditional court we sometimes ask the man to compensate the father of the girl child, and if the girl is not pregnant she goes back to school. We encourage pregnant girls to go back to school but sometimes it is not possible due to poverty.
Reprinted with permission from Human Rights Watch.
Soldiers are instructed that boy rape is "part of the culture" of Afghanistan's male adults
In a "tradition" called bacha bazi (boy play) boys are turned into sex slaves and forced to dress as girls and dance. One US Army captain was relieved of command after he beat an Afghan militia commander who had a boy chained to his bed. (Screen capture from YouTube video)
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”
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Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.
The policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militias to help hold territory against the Taliban. But soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.
“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.”
The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.
After the beating, the Army relieved Captain Quinn of his command and pulled him from Afghanistan. He has since left the military.
The police chief was granted a paid vacation ("paid administrative leave") while an "investigation" occurs over his use of social media to stalk an underage girl.
Booty Chasing Cop: Maypearl, TX Police Chief |
Kevin Coffey (left)with NYPD Commissioner Bill
Bratton in January.
By Tobias Salinger
A North Texas police chief has allegedly sent creepy sexual messages and acted “very touchy” with a local teen for two years, according to documents released Monday.
A 16-year-old girl and her parents allege Maypearl Police Chief Kevin Coffey, 49, has harassed her on social media and made lewd comments about her body since she was 14, a Texas Rangers affidavit released on Monday says.
The Rangers and agents from the Attorney General of Texas’ office raided his home and office over the weekend, KXAS-TV reported. He has yet to be arrested or charged in the ongoing investigation.
Maypearl Mayor Adele Mooney placed Coffey on paid administrative leave “until further notice,” she told The Ellis County Citizen on Monday. Coffey didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations early Tuesday.
The children were 8 and 9-years-old and had learning disabilities.
For some reason school officials have police handling "behavior problems" in this manner. (Photo screen captured from YouTube video)
By ACLU
A deputy sheriff shackled two elementary school children who have disabilities, causing them pain and trauma, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Children's Law Center, and Dinsmore & Shohl.
The children, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, were so small that the school resource officer, Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner in Covington, Kentucky, locked the handcuffs around the children's biceps and forced their hands behind their backs, the lawsuit charges. A disturbing video shows the boy, S.R., being shackled and crying out in pain. S.R. has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a history of trauma.
The girl, L.G, was twice handcuffed behind her back by her biceps, also causing her pain. L.G. has ADHD and other special needs. Both children were being punished for behavior related to their disabilities. Neither was arrested nor charged with any criminal conduct. The lawsuit was filed on their behalf.
Nationally, students with disabilities make up 12 percent of students in public schools, but are 75 percent of the students who are physically restrained by adults in their schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education. These disciplinary practices also feed into the "school-to-prison pipeline," where children are funneled out of public schools and into the criminal justice system. Many of these children have disabilities, yet instead of receiving necessary educational and counseling services, they are often punished and pushed out.
Students of color and students with disabilities are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline. One child in this case is Latino, and the other is African-American.
By Lauren Gillin Last month the Australian government, with the support of the opposition, passed the Border Force Protection Act through both houses of Parliament. It will come into effect on July 1.
If the act defines you as an "entrusted person," you might be facing jail for up to two years if you reveal anything about what happens in Australia's immigration detention centers to anybody else.
An "entrusted person" is anyone working directly or indirectly for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, so that's doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers, counsellors, security staff, maintenance workers, or anyone who has signed a government contract. This puts medical professionals and those who work with children on Nauru or Manus Island in bizarre circumstances. Outside of detention centers, they're legally obligated to report child abuse. As of July 1, they can't do the same with abuse witnessed on the inside.
By John Vibes
Los Angeles, California – Police from the Huntington Park and South Gate Police Departments were recently accused of physically and verbally abusing children. The alleged abuse took place at a camp they were operating at Camp San Luis Obispo, a California Army National Guard Military Base.
The children, ages 12 to 16, were participating in a 20-week-long program that aimed to teach discipline and leadership as well as reduce family conflict, according to a news release from Owen’s law firm. The program included the weeklong camp in San Luis Obispo.
At least seven children who were enrolled in the Leadership Empowerment and Discipline program (LEAD), have come forward about the abuse that took place during the most recent classes between May 17th and 24th. The LEAD program is sponsored by the Huntington Park Police Department, South Gate Police Department, and the California National Guard.
A week after the classes were over, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office received a report from Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, which detailed the accusations of abuse. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the case.
According to the report, the children say that officers involved with the camp routinely “slapped, punched, and stepped on their hands and backs while doing push-ups” and “took them into a dark room where they were beaten if they did not meet the expectations of the camp supervisors.” The report also indicated that the children were “given towels to clean the blood off of themselves prior to exiting the room after the beatings.”
Bridget Salazar said her 13-year-old son was punched, slammed up against a wall and choked.
“He just couldn’t stop crying,” Salazar said. “Right there, I knew something happened.”
Robert Lellock of Beltzhoover, 46. Convicted on multiple counts.
By Matt Agorist
When famous football coach, Jerry Sandusky raped multiple young boys it was a worldwide scandal. However, when a public servant whose job was to “protect” school children, instead commits dozens and dozens of rapes on a school campus, no one bats an eye.
Twenty-two victims in total are mentioned in a lawsuit against former school resource officer, Robert Lellock.
The lawsuit details how this serial child rapist would repeatedly walk into classrooms and remove his victims one by one. He would then lock himself and the young boys in the janitor’s closet where the sexual assaults would take place.
“They were charged with the welfare and protection of the children entrusted to them, and they failed these children repeatedly and systematically by turning a blind eye to the obvious signs of abuse being perpetrated by defendant Lellock,” the lawsuit says.
The anonymous man spearheading the lawsuit is now 29-years-old. The victim details within the lawsuit how Lellock took him out of class dozens of times during his stay at Arthur J. Rooney Middle School from 1998-99. He did the same with 21 other boys.
The victim notes how teachers blindly trusted this authority figure. None of the staff ever question why a cop would be interrupting class to remove the same boys over and over again.
An official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), Mr. Raad Zeid al Hussein, believes that the over 200 Chibok
schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram a year ago were slaughtered in Bama as the forces of Nigeria, Chad and Niger advanced on their positions.
Screen capture from Video.
By Morgan Winsor Muhammadu Buhari swore to rescue 276 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped last year by Boko Haram if elected president of Nigeria. But Buhari, who last week emerged victorious in the presidential election by defeating President Goodluck Jonathan, may be too late to make good on that promise. The terror group possibly killed the girls prior to the election last month before fleeing areas in Borno state as the country's army and coalition forces moved in to recover the territories, according to Nigerian newspaper ThisDay.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said Monday the female students -- who were seized from a boarding school in the northeast town of Chibok in April 2014 -- may have been among the group of females slaughtered by Boko Haram in Borno state last month. “The recent recovery of territories in northeastern Nigeria has brought to light macabre scenes of mass graves and more obvious signs of killings by Boko Haram,” Hussein told ThisDay Monday, citing various reports that recently arrived at his office in Geneva. “These reports include the murder of the wives of combatants, women and girls actually held in slavery.” A request for comment to Hussein by International Business Times was not immediately returned Monday.
Dozens of Nigerian women and girls have been abducted and forcibly married to the Islamic militants since 2014. The fighters were told last week to kill female captives they had taken as “wives,” before Nigerian and coalition troops overtook Boko Haram headquarters in Gwoza, Agence France-Press reported.
Officials won’t know for sure whether the mass graves contain the bodies of the Chibok schoolgirls until forensic evidence has been collected and tested. J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, said there was very little probability the girls have been kept alive since their kidnapping. “We can’t be certain of who they are,” Pham said Monday. “In a way, it’s confirmation of what many of us had quietly feared for some time.”
The resolution — “Stop Coca-Cola’s Abuse of Children and Violation of Human Rights” — called for a boycott of Coca-Cola products based upon a litany of violations of workers’ rights and child labor laws on the part of the company.
AFT officials said that the passage of the boycott resolution last year “drew an immediate reaction from the Coca-Cola Company, whose national leadership sought an opportunity to provide the American Federation of Teachers with information on actions taken in recent years to address these concerns.”
As a result of these meetings, the AFT “will collaborate with the Coca-Cola Company in areas where we have a strong mutual interest, such as the elimination of hazardous child labor and advocating for increased educational opportunities for children as the best way to eliminate the poverty that is the root cause of child labor.”
The partnership agreement between AFT and Coca-Cola was signed March 23 by AFT President Randi Weingarten and Ed Potter, Coke’s director of global workplace rights.
Also on hand was former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, who is a member of the Coca-Cola board of directors.
The grassroots movement to push the Coca-Cola boycott resolution was spearheaded by Barbara Bowen, a professor of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY) and current president of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY. Bowen did not return calls seeking comment.
But the reversal of the boycott did not sit well with the AFT members at the grassroots who were involved in getting the boycott resolution passed. And it did not sit well with other consumer and labor activists.
Sharon Silvio, an AFT union member from Rochester, New York, said she was “very disappointed” in the reversal of the boycott and wanted questions answered about how and why the reversal came about.
NYU Professor Marion Nestle, author of the upcoming Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning) (Oxford University Press, October 2015), said Coca-Cola’s partnership with AFT “is an example of Coke’s typical strategy: partner and buy the silence of the partners on issues of labor rights and health.”
