The Surprising City Where Rape Victims Are Finding Justice

http://www.takepart.com/feature/2015/05/01/somalia-sexual-offences-bill?cmpid=tpfeatures-eml-2015-05-03-somalia

“With our Somali colleagues, [we] spent many hours discussing the concept of the one-stop center and that it would not reduce the power of the police, the doctors, or the attorney general's office but in fact would result in more survivors coming forward to report crimes and increase the number of convictions,” Mulvey says.

So, in 2008 and with funding from UNICEF, UNDP, and the German aid organization Kindernothilfe, Baahi-Koob Sexual Assault Referral Centre opened at Hargeisa Group Hospital. On arrival, survivors can seek immediate medical attention, speak with a psychologist and a social worker, and report their case directly to one of eight full-time members of a police Criminal Investigation Department who keep offices at the hospital. Doctors use a standardized medical form that satisfies the requirements of all involved parties for a prosecution to move forward—the CID, the Ministry of Justice, the attorney general’s office, and UNDP.

By 2012 the center was handling nearly 200 cases of sexual and gender-based violence a year; by 2013 the number reached 326—every reported case of sexual violence prosecuted that year in Somaliland—171 of which were prosecuted, resulting in 54 convictions. The rate of convictions for gender-based violence, 31 percent, exceeds the 18 percent of rape cases, according to a national study, that are successfully prosecuted in the U.S. Last year, 399 cases were reported at Baahi-Koob; 191 were prosecuted, leading to 47 convictions. Another 109 are pending.

The model has proved so successful that last year UNDP sponsored two satellite centers in nearby hospitals, based on the same model.