New Telegraph

Human Rights group urges states to domesticate laws to eliminate rape

The Centre for Human Rights and Prevention of Trafficking in Persons has urged Attorneys General of states of the federation to facilitate the domestication of federal gender-based laws in their various states in order to eliminate the alarming prevalence of rape.
Executive Director of the Centre Barr. John Tsok, in a press statement issued to journalists in Jos on Monday, called on state governments that are yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act to do so urgently in order to guarantee protection for the child from rape and other violations of their rights.
The Centre wants the states to domesticate the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 (VAPPA) whose provisions with regard to the offence of rape are broader in scope and have greater capacity to penalize the offence than many state penal laws.
According to the Centre, VAPPAs definition of rape is not as restrictive as that provided by the penal laws, adding while it prescribes a minimum jail sentence of 12 years for the crime, the penal code leaves that at the discretion of the court.
It states further that under VAPPA, the rape victim is awarded compensation even as the Act mandates the establishment of a Sex Offender Register to keep track of such offenders.
The Centre describes as worrisome cases of incest, defilement of little and innocent children and the report that only 717 cases of rape were reported to the police which do not include unreported ones.

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