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http://www.eldis.org:80/go/topics/resource-guides/gender/gender-based-violence/sexual-violence&id=36673&type=Document

Gender-based sexual violence against teenage girls in the Middle East

How to prevent gender-based sexual violence and early marriages in the Middle East

Authors: P. Ouis; T. Myhrman
Publisher: Child Rights Information Network , 2007

Direct Link to 173-Page Report: http://www.crin.org/docs/Gender_based_sexual_Violence.pdf

This paper is an analysis of the existing gender-based sexual violence against teenage girls in the Middle East. It is a comparative study that analyses the realities of early marriages and sexual abuse in Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Yemen.

The paper states that there are thousands of girls in the Middle East region that are denied their right to participation, education, play, and self-expression. They are forced into early marriage and used as domestic labourers in their own homes.

The report notes that there is a shortage of, and a need to develop, material that highlights the harmful effects of sexual violence against children and the child’s right to protection. Furthermore experts from all countries concerned outlined the need for capacity building of adults to be able to deal with children and have the know-how on preventing sexual violence and supporting children who have been exposed to such aggression.

The report makes the following recommendations:

• acknowledge the importance of girls’ right to education in order to combat sexual violence
• facilitate the development of best-practices for activities that aim to empower girls and make them active participants that can express themselves 
• develop best-practices for children who have been exposed to sexual violence 
• give NGOs working on child rights the capacity to press charges when the rights of the child are violated 
• ensure that national policy’s to combat sexual violence against teenage girls are accompanied by an upgrade of the pro-male legislative framework, in order to attain equality between the two sexes
• carry out or facilitate training of professionals on how to set-up structures that prevent sexual violence to the largest extent possible 
• produce material for teachers, social workers, and other adults on how to teach children about their right to protection
• to use the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for combating sexual violence against teenage girls 
• promoting new legislations against trafficking and child prostitution in the region 
• supporting the women’s movement in the region that is working for legal changes and the promotion of gender equality.

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