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Increase in sexual violence cases worrying — DOVVSU

Increase in sexual violence cases worrying — DOVVSU

THE Acting National Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mrs Habiba Twumasi-Sarpong, has expressed worry about the increase in sexual violence in the country.

She said the unit recorded 1,296 defilement cases in 2014 as against 1,230 and 1,111 in 2013 and 2012, respectively, and added that recorded cases of rape increased from 290 in 2012 to 315 in 2013 and 342 in 2014.

She was speaking to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of a three-day training of trainers workshop for 40 police school training instructors and DOVVSU coordinators on the manual on gender-based violence and reproductive health and rights.

 

 

Sponsorship

The training, which was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), was to equip the instructors with knowledge in sexual-based violence and to impart same to the recruits to enable them to detect the offences when they pass out.

She said gender-based and sexual violence had become endemic in the society over the years in spite of sustained efforts by the unit and other civil society organisations in educating the public. She indicated that although offences recorded by the unit last year had decreased in numbers, the figures for sexual offences kept increasing, with a decline in domestic violence offences over the past two years.

 ACP Twumasi-Sarpong noted that that did not augur well for the nation and called for concerted effort to fight the menace.

She said the police administration, with the support of the UNFPA, decided to introduce the recruits to gender-based and sexual violence to prepare them for the work outside the training schools.

 

Assisting victims

She indicated that although DOVVSU would continue to remain the specialised unit that deals with such issues, training all officers of the service in sexual-based violence would put them in a position to assist victims when they report to the police.

She said some victims went through a lot of trauma while others got infected with sexually transmitted diseases or became pregnant.

As part of the measures to reduce these crimes in the country, she said the unit would beef up its advocacy and sensitisation programmes to educate the public and also expand its operation to cover more districts, thereby making its services accessible to the public.

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