IN THE developing world, violence is an everyday threat for the poor. Millions of children and women are exploited in the commercial sex trade; statistics have established the stark reality that one of five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime, and in excess of 30 million people are held as modern-day slaves. It is estimated that, by 2020, an approximate 1.5 billion persons will live without secure rights to their homes and properties.
Throughout the developing world, fear of violence is a part of everyday life for the poor. It is as much a part of poverty as hunger, disease or malnutrition.
The poorest are so vulnerable because their justice systems – police, courts and laws – don’t protect them from violent people.
According to the United Nations, justice systems in the developing world are so broken that the majority of poor people live life “far from the law’s protection.”
Solutions for these abominations in the family of mankind can only come with community-level involvement, with a holistic approach from all stakeholders. Community and church leaders should partner with law enforcement officials to go into brothels, bars, slave facilities and other dark places to rescue victims.
Justice should be relentlessly pursued in the courts to ensure that all traffickers, slave owners, rapists, child molesters and other criminals are brought to justice swiftly – with the accent being on swiftly. Survivors of violence should be helped to rebuild their lives and be restored to their families; and trauma counselling, job skills training, education or other help should be provided to meet each survivor’s specific need.
Human rights groups should lobby for functional justice systems and constitutional changes, where necessary, to strengthen the advocacy and justice systems, so that victims do not fall through cracks left open either intentionally or unintentionally.
The International Justice Mission has a worldwide membership of volunteers who provide advocacy, organize fundraisers, and offer victims help in a multiplicity of ways.
Village Service Trust is a progressive UK charity that works with Indian NGOs to support women, HIV+ people and Dalits confronting poverty and injustice. The organisation empowers marginalised people to build community organisations and pursue lives free from poverty, violence and discrimination.
Violence and abuse affect women from all kinds of backgrounds every day. Sometimes women are attacked by strangers, but most often they are hurt by people who are close to them. Violence and abuse can cause terrible physical and emotional pain, thus victims need to be encouraged to think they are not alone, and that they can get help from the relevant bodies.
Education and support are factors that are key to strengthening the resolve of victims to escape from their respective situations. But what of the chance encounter –that moment in time where a victim falls prey to a predator on the prowl, like little Sade Stoby of Mocha? The accused, Jevon Wharton, admitted to having sex with her, stating during his trial: “Me and her walked until there was no shops…. We went in de bush and Sade tek off she clothes and we continue doing what we bin doing… sex.”
Wharton and Charles Cush are accused of raping and murdering the nine-year-old resident of Barnwell North, Mocha at sometime between November 2 and November 5, 2007. It was revealed through a post-mortem examination, conducted on her body by Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh, that the child had been brutally raped and drowned. The cause of her death was asphyxiation due to submersion, compounded by blunt trauma to the head. When the child’s body was recovered, she was bloated, and had haemorrhaged from her head and chest.
According to Dr Singh’s report, “There was thick black mud in her trachea, her stomach was filled with dark black mud, blood in her vagina, her hymen was ruptured and her intestines were protruding through her anus; there was blunt trauma to (the) head. There was bruising of the vagina, which indicated sexual activity just before her death.”
How is it possible for a child to consent to sex? How could any human being inflict such torture on an innocent child, and leave those who loved her to suffer the enduring pain, not only of her death, but the agony she endured before she died. And what punishment could suffice to bring justice to victims of such horrendous acts?
Throughout history, Man’s inhumanity to Man has superseded the dictates of civilized society, and reached a level of surpassingly cruel bestiality that drives normal people almost to despair; and it is only the hope of resurrection, regeneration, and reincarnation of the soul that provides hope to enable endurance and fortitude.
