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Tunisia adopts international measures to protect children from rape

August 2, 2017 at 3:49 pm

The Lanzarote Convention: a tool against Child Abuse [Twitter]

The Tunisian Council of Ministers has adopted two international covenants to protect children in the country from sexual and other abuses, the Minister of Women, Family and Children Naziha Labidi confirmed whilst speaking on Jawhara FM radio yesterday.

“Yesterday the Council of Ministers adopted the Lanzarote Convention, which makes Tunisia the first country outside European countries to adopt this convention for the protection of children against rape,” she said.

According to the minister, “200 [reported] rapes of children” take place each year in the country excluding the many cases that go unreported or the cases of underage marriages.

Read: Tunisia sentences man to death for murder and rape of infant

The Lanzarote Convention requires the criminalisation of all types of sexual offenses against children and requires all parties to the Convention to ensure, through the submission of national reports and other sources, that their commitments are fulfilled.

Tunisia is ranked ninth in terms of child protection which “is the first in Africa and in the Arab world”, according to Labidi.

“We also adopted in the Council of Ministers Protocol 3 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Labidi added.

Read: Outrage in Tunisia over girl’s marriage to rapist

Protocol 3 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child allows every child to be able to file an individual communication before the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Thus, if a child considers that one of his or her fundamental rights has been violated, he or she can – under certain conditions – file a complaint before the Committee.