"Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools"

"Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools" by Human Rights Watch.

Available from: Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118-3299, USA. Tel: (212) 290-4700. Fax: (212) 736-1300. Email: hrwnyc@hrw.org. Website: www.hrw.org

Imagine if going to school meant also being sexually harassed, having your genitals touched, and sometimes even being raped by teachers and fellow students.

Imagine if you lived in a country that had a widespread belief that men who have sex with virginal young women (under age 12) would be protected or even cured of AIDS.

Imagine if your school, the police, the state department of education, were not taking these issues seriously...that you were often disbelieved and ridiculed for making a complaint.

Imagine if you had to sweep the floors and clean the buildings while boys in your school were studying for exams.

Now imagine that you are a girl in school in South Africa. You are facing all of these problems, as well as the fact that 50% of your classmates will die from AIDS.

Imagine trying to get an education under these circumstances.

Regardless of whether you are black or white, disabled or non-disabled, if you are a female student in South Africa you are confronted with sexual harassment and/or sexual assault on a regular basis.

As Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations said "Education is the single most vital element in combating poverty, empowering women, protecting children from hazardous and exploitative labor... [girl's education is] an effective social development policy with immediate benefits for health and nutrition as well as long term potential for preventing conflict and building peace."

Gender bias prevents girls in many countries from receiving a basic education. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa house the majority of children with no access to education. Because many more girls than boys are not in school, women comprise the majority of the world's illiterate adults.

South Africa was chosen because the problem of sexual violence against girls in school is severe and also because some segments of South African society are working hard to change the situation. South Africa has one of the highest levels of violence against women in the world.

In South Africa's schools, girls were "raped in school toilets, empty classrooms and hallways, and in hostels and dormitories. Girls were also fondled, subjected to aggressive sexual advances, and verbally degraded at school. We found that girls from all levels of society and among all ethnic groups are affected by sexual violence at school."

Girls who experience sexual violence at school often leave school, lose interest in their studies, stop participating in school events including sports, and/or transfer to new schools. While an equal number of girls and boys sit for matriculation examinations, boys pass the exams at a much higher rate than girls.

Part of the problem of sexual violence at schools is the level of sexual violence in South African society. In a 1998 survey, three out of ten women interviewed had been victims of sexual violence in the past year; seventy-seven percent said that sexual violence was "very common" in their area; sixty-eight percent had experienced sexual harassment at work or school; and one in four men said they'd had sex with a woman without her consent before he was eighteen years old.

Scared at School documents that too often a school's response is to conceal sexual violence, to avoid disciplining sexual abusers and to be uncooperative with police authorities. This means that the girls are alone in dealing with the school abuse and the perpetrators continue their abuse with impunity against the same girl or other girls.

The South African government is introducing measures to reduce crime and violence in schools and to create concrete guidelines for dealing with sexual assaults at schools. Human Rights Watch hopes that their research will assist South Africans to tackle this entrenched problem and move more quickly towards solutions.

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