The call comes at the back of an estimated 4 959 girls who
fell pregnant during Covid-19 lockdown and risk losing educational
opportunities. ZGC recently conducted a national multi-sectoral stakeholders’
inquiry on sexual exploitation and abuse of girls including in so called child
marriages.
The Commission’s chairperson, Mrs Margaret
Mukahanana-Sangarwe said it was important to interrogate the experiences of
survivors to determine the forms of exploitation. She urged the Ministry of
Primary and Secondary Education to scale up the second chance education policy
to reach every needy child, and capacitate teachers and other personnel within
the education sector on how to handle pregnant children and mothers in schools
to reduce stigma and discrimination.
“The focus of the inquiry interrogated experiences of
survivors to determine the drivers and forms in which the child marriage and
sexual exploitation take.
It also sought to examine the effects of child marriage and
sexual exploitation including on girls with disabilities and proffer
recommendations and solutions at multi-sectoral level to address the
challenges,” she said in reference to the ZGC National Inquiry on Sexual
Exploitation and Abuse of young girls in Zimbabwe.
She said the national inquiry and investigation established
that there were various drivers of child marriages and sexual exploitation.
“The inquiry established that there are common and general
causes/drivers of child marriages and child exploitation that were identified
in all the country’s ten provinces.
These include cultural and religious norms which undervalue
girls, particularly those with disabilities, virginity and other myths against
girls with disabilities, early pregnancy, poverty and lack of economic
opportunities and lack of school fees and sanitary wear among others,” she
added.
Mrs Mukahanana-Sangarwe however, said they also established
that there were specific causes/drivers peculiar to certain geographical and
social settings within each of the country’s ten provinces. While, these
geographical and social context specific causes/drivers include religious and
cultural practices, negative perception of the role of girls and women in
society, migration trends and gold panning — proximity to small-scale mining
activities remain a challenge.
“The inquiry also revealed systemic barriers and challenges
faced by survivors especially persons with disabilities in accessing justice
and social protection mechanisms which include long distances to courts, lack
of sign language interpreters, lack of safe shelters, discrimination by the
community and service providers and being hidden away from the public by their
families.”
She said there was need to establish robust psychosocial
support systems within the sector to support survivors of child marriage and
sexual exploitation.
“There is need to implement the Education Act provision on
the establishment of Sexual Reproductive Health Rights focal persons in schools
to help reduce child pregnancies, child marriages and other child rights
violations.”
To the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Mrs Mukahanana-Sangarwe said
there was need to accelerate alignment of laws to the Constitution particularly
those on gender equality and children’s rights. She said Parliament should
adopt and implement the Sadc Model Law on Child Marriages as the blueprint for
managing child marriages, among other key things.
ZGC also made recommendation to various ministries such as
Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Public
Service, Labour, and Social Welfare, Ministry of Women Affairs, Community,
Small and Medium Enterprise Development and Ministry of Health and Child Care
and other non-state actors. Sunday News
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