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UN study reveals rape crisis in Asia-Pacific

One in every four persons admits rape

AFPZ Bangkok
Nearly a quarter of men surveyed in six Asia-Pacific countries admit to committing rape, often against their own partners, according to a HN report published yesterday that exposes widespread violence against women.
Based on anonymous interviews with more than 10,000 men aged between 18 and 49-years-old in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea, the study is the first of its scale in the region.
"Violence against women is a harsh reality for many," Roberta Clarke, regional director of HN Women, said at the launch of the report in Bangkok.
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"We must change the culture that enables men to enact power and control over women."
The prevalence of rape varied widely between locations, the UN said, explaining that its sample areas were not representative of whole countries.
Using a definition of non-consensual, penetrative sex as a benchmark, the study said 11 percent of respondents reported having raped a woman who was not their partner.
This rose to nearly a quarter - 24 percent - when their partner was included in the question.
Of those men who said they had committed rape, just under half (45 percent) said they had raped more than one woman.
Alarmingly, of those who admitted rape, half were teenagers and 12 percent
were younger than 15-years-old, while the majority of men surveyed said they had not faced any legal consequences for their actions.
The highest prevalence (more than 62 percent) of rape was found in Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, where a decade of war ravaged the island until 1998 and community justice is often favoured over legal process.
In the restive neighbouring Indonesian province of Papua the rates were at nearly 49 percent, while 26 percent of respondents in Jakarta admitted to the crime.
Rates in the one Chinese area surveyed reached 22 percent while those in Cambodia - the most comprehensively studied with respondents drawn from five districts - were at 20 percent, the report found.
The probe is not intended to be an authoritative statis-
tical overview of rape in these six countries or of the Asia-Pacific region, say the authors.
"Violence is pervasive but it is also preventable," according to report researcher Emma Fulu of Partners for Prevention.
"The factors we found associated with violence are changeable," she said, citing high rates of child abuse, recent conflicts shredding social structures and poor law enforcement.
In addition, men who had witnessed violence against their mothers or frequently paid for sex were more likely to continue the cycle of violence, she added.
To break the pattern young people should be engaged with issues "around what consent means... understanding sexuality and masculinity" within relationships, Fulu added.