Vanuatu gets tough on sex crimes

VANUATU – The Vanuatu government has amended its criminal code to toughened up on punishments fora variety of sex and violence crimes.

Sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13 will now carry a sentence of lifetime imprisonment.

Penalties for incest go from 10 years jail to a maximum of 15 years.

A new law was also inserted to deal with the abduction of girls under the age of 18 years and provides for a maximum penalty of seven years.

The Daily Post newspaper said the Council of Ministers hoped amended increased penalties several other sex and assault related offences will act as a deterrent.

Vanuatu Women’s Centre director, Merilyn Tahi, says the laws may not be used often but definitely tougher laws are necessary as deterrence for crimes of incest, unlawful sexual intercourse and other forms of abuse against young girls especially by those under whose care they are placed.

While she welcomes the gazetting of the amendments, she says gazetting them is one thing but to actually implement them is something else.

She gives as an example the Family Protection Act which was gazetted in 2008, which criminalised domestic violence.

“Since then not much has been done to prosecute offenders involved in crimes of that nature”.

Regarding sexual assaults, she says they are committed primarily by fathers, grandfathers and men in general.

“We cannot only blame young men but older men too are involved in abuse, and we are receiving more reports on incest for example,” she says.

“Yes, we welcome the gazetting of the amendments but we are also monitoring the laws to see if they are going to be implemented by the government or the justice sector or not”.

A survey done by the Vanuatu Women’s Centre in 2009 on Women’s Lives And Family Relationships, which focused on prevalence of incidents of violence against women in the country, found out that 30 per cent of young girls are abused before they are 15 years old.

Globally speaking 30 per cent of girls being are sexually abused is a very high number, she says.

Sixty per cent of ni-Vanuatu women who have ever been in a relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands or intimate partners in their lifetime. - PNC