Widespread sexual abuse is fuelling the spread of HIV/AIDS among girls and young women in Zambia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in report released on Tuesday.
HIV/AIDS prevalence among girls under the age of 18 is four to
seven times higher than that among boys of the same age, HRW said.
"Young girls are preyed on by older men, including those who dare to call themselves guardians or caretakers," director of the HRW's Africa division and co-author of the report, Janet Fleischman, said.
The report found that police are often ineffective in enforcing Zambia’s sexual-abuse laws. HRW called on the government to increase training about sexual abuse for police and court officials.
The report is available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/zambia/
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