{"id":389818,"date":"2018-01-08T16:07:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T16:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=389818"},"modified":"2018-01-08T16:07:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T16:07:36","slug":"somaliland-passes-first-law-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/somaliland-passes-first-law-rape\/","title":{"rendered":"Somaliland passes first law against rape"},"content":{"rendered":"
The self-declared republic of Somaliland has passed a law against rape for the first time.<\/p>\n
In the past, the victim could be forced to marry the rapist and the families would support such a resolution to hide the shame attached to rape.<\/p>\n
Rapists now stand to face at least 30 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Somaliland’s speaker of parliament, Bashe Mohamed Farah, told the BBC that rape cases have risen and he hoped the new law would help stop that trend.<\/p>\n
“Nowadays we have seen even people carrying out gang rapes,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The main emphasis of the new act is to completely stop rape.<\/p>\n
The new law has come in after years of lobbying by children and women’s rights advocates.<\/p>\n
Faisa Ali Yusuf of the Women’s Agenda Forum told the BBC they’ve been waiting for such legislation for a very long time.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Anne Soy explains that this comes within the context of the self-declared republic being keen to be seen internationally as a viable democracy with functioning institutions.<\/p>\n
It declared itself independent from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but is not internationally recognised as a country.<\/p>\n
Our correspondent says there is still no law against rape in Somalia.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The self-declared republic of Somaliland has passed a law against rape for the first time. In the past, the victim could be forced to marry the rapist and the families would support such a resolution to hide the shame attached to rape. Rapists now stand to face at least 30 years in prison. Somaliland’s speaker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":389819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[1892,1018],"yoast_head":"\n