While the laws are clear when it comes to Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), we can and should do better as a society to prevent this scourge. We have the knowledge and tools, and together we create a safer world for children.
The Uganda Children (Amendment) Act 2016 prohibits sexual exploitation: a person shall not engage a child in any work that exposes the child to activities of a sexual nature, whether paid or not. Sexual violence against children entails any sexual act with a child.
The World Health Organisation defines CSA as ‘the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violates the laws or social taboos of society.’
Child sexual violence includes touching and non-touching behaviours, sexual harassment, sexual jokes and comments, exposure to pornography and defilement. It happens due to abuse of power by the perpetrators who are always in a position of power as adults are older than the victim.
Other contributing factors include economic poverty and family breakdown, access to the Internet etc. It is exacerbated by negative cultural social norms that expose children, especially girls, to abuse by normalising some forms of sexual abuse.
Our society, for example, defines how girls and women should conduct themselves, for instance how to dress, speak, where to go, and when, otherwise they would be inviting abuse.
These negative social norms lead to secondary victimisation for survivors of child sexual violence. Secondary victimisation comes in the form of disbelief, blame, and rejection from adults; children are labelled liars or manipulative by the very adults whose role is critical in their protection. How prevalent is this?
The Uganda annual police crime report revealed that in 2024 alone, 12,317 children under the age of 18 were defiled and of these, 12,009 were girls while 308 were boys. Moreover, 1,447 of these were between the age of zero and eight years and 2,515 were between nine and 14 years. In Uganda, defilement refers to act of sexual intercourse with a person below the age of 18, whether they consent or not.
The consequences of child sexual abuse are both short-term and long-term and range from social, emotional, cognitive, educational problems, low self-esteem, and self-harm, and may lead to suicide.
Many victims are too young or too vulnerable to disclose their experiences or to protect themselves. But who should take responsibility for child sexual abuse?
Adults have a responsibility to protect children from sexual abuse and hold perpetrators of child abuse accountable.
Empowerment strategies for children like age-appropriate information helps them to know what constitutes sexual violence, be able to testify in court, to name the act, to identify abuse, but this awareness has little impact on the prevention of CSA since they are often abused by adults.
The burden of protection should not be left to children. There is a need to provide teachers and adults with sufficient training to be able to prevent, report and manage sexual abuse in their schools and communities because sexual violence, like other forms of violence against children, thrives in an enabling culture. Our societal norms need to align with and be protective of children. This process must start early by working with parents, caregivers, and Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners to provide gender-responsive pedagogies and information from a young age.
Children should be taught about gender equality and the harms of gender-based discrimination early on. This helps them to be gender-sensitive and respectful from the beginning. We also need to ensure the materials we use are translated into local languages to cater for the entire community as well as cater for children with disability since vulnerability to child sexual abuse is compounded by physical disability. We all have a role to protect children from sexual abuse and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.